Ryno Motors announces Portland Police will test one-wheel EV
By Lee van der Voo, Sustainable Business Oregon
Sustainable Business Oregon
Ryno Motors, which will lease its one-wheeled electric vehicle to the Portland Police Bureau next year, currently has a prototype on display at the London Transport Museum.
Portland police will soon be cruising community festivals on a single wheel, following a deal with Ryno Motors to lease the company's one-wheeled electric vehicle beginning next summer.
The bureau will lease two micro-cycles for one year, said Christopher Hoffmann, CEO of Portland-based Ryno.
The arrangement will cost the Portland Police Bureau $1 for two of Ryno’s prototypes, targeted to retail at about $4,200 each. Despite the fantastic deal, the arrangement is a win for Ryno, which will get considerable exposure as police scan the streets and navigate the beer festival on their design inspired by a child’s videogame.
Gawkers are proving critical to Ryno’s ramp-up to production. The company is looking for $600,000 — modified from $1.6 million in January — to start putting micro-cyles on the streets. It’s the first-of-its-kind as a single-wheeled vehicle, designed with a patent-pending auto-balancing system, steering and an integrated, software-controlled disc brake system.
The deal with the Portland Police Bureau follows weeks of interest in the Ryno cycle, which will be featured as the ride of choice for musician-cum-actress Carrie Brownstein in an upcoming episode of Portlandia. It also has a cameo in a patent office in this season’s final episode of Leverage, was recently profiled for a yet-to-publish article on the hugely popular AOL-owned engadget.com and landed one of two coveted “future” spots in the London Transport Museum for a history of transportation exhibit. One of Ryno's prototypes will be on display there for a year.
Add to the fanfare ongoing negotiations with two manufacturers interested in producing the micro-cycle, and Hoffmann maintains that snowballing interest could usher Ryno quickly to the streets.
Lee van der Voo, lvdvoo*at*gmail.com, is a freelance writer for Sustainable Business Oregon.
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