We started designing the ReVolt in November 2023. The prototype launched in July. Production launched 15 days after the prototype. Let me share the story from design to production.
I am a fan of the lean startup process — the faster you fail, the better. That is the process. Take an idea, work on it, fail fast, take the failure data, and move to the next idea to fail again.
Some may think — everyone works to pass, and you work to fail. Even if it sounds backward, this is the path to sustainable success, to discovering something new.
We want to know not what we will pass at, but what we will fail at. Failing and failing, it reaches a point where there is no way left to fail — meaning, it has passed.
Of course, the ideas where we will spend resources are ranked first. With a weighted matrix and FMEA, we decide in advance whether it will fail.
Design phase. Making the product document. I am a product design person, so it starts here. I write the outline of everything a product design needs.
First, the level-1 requirements. This is the one thing I learned doing engineering at an American university, and I keep it like religion.
Our design requirements were:
One. No stamping machine, dies or costly equipment. We cannot buy any machine of our own. We must build the car with whatever is available locally on rent. No point crying about what we don't have — we must start with what we have.
Two. The car must share the Cityboy's body, so that with one design we can make two kinds of cars.
Three. The manufacturing must be scalable. Each job goes to a different workshop. We must be able to make not just 10 but even 500 cars a month.
Four. We must design with local parts — parts you can find in the corners of the country.
Five. The car must follow European standards, so we get BRTA approval easily.
Six. Repairing the car must be so easy that even a complete beginner can repair it.
This is how we build — with what we have, where we are.