E-Car Club, the UK's first entirely electric car club, has secured (£215,000) $330,000 worth of funding from angel investors. The additional funding will allow the E-Car Club to expand into eight new locations in London and South-East England during 2013. The club operates in partnership with local low carbon community groups in making e-cars available within the community.The E-Car Club raised the funds via a leading crowd-funding site, Crowdcube. E-Car Club, the lowest emission car hire fleet in the UK, is currently completing a ten-month pilot project, partially funded by the Technology Strategy Board, to develop Car Club operations in partnership with local low carbon community groups. The funding raised will be used to deploy additional electric vehicles in up to eight new locations in London and South-East England during 2013, providing communities, businesses and local authorities with access to a car when they need one – without the high fixed cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle.
The pilot community in Wolverton, Milton Keynes has over 90 members using the five door Nissan LEAF cars for shopping and business trips, and for trips to visit friends and family.
"This new funding provides us with the capital to extend our operations and demonstrate the role both the Electric Vehicle and the Car Club can play in corporate and public transport strategy," said Christopher Morris, E-Car's development director.
Andrew Wordsworth, Managing Director at Sustainable Ventures and also Chairman of E-Car Club said, “Receiving £100,000 from 63 investors in E-Car Club’s crowdfunding round proved a real stamp of approval when looking for additional investment. The second round is a more traditional investment structure.
Luke Lang, Founder and Director of CrowdCube said, “It is great to see businesses like E-Car Club securing its next round of funding from more traditional routes after raising its seed investment on Crowdcube. This is good news for E-Car and its Crowdcube investors as the company can further accelerate its growth and deliver greater shareholder value.”
Marc Blumenthal, serial entrepreneur and Angel Investor said, “E-Car’s innovative concept and its enormous growth potential, as well as its dynamic and professional team is what inspired me to invest in the company at an early stage. I strongly believe in E-Car’s future and am excited for what lies ahead.”
E-Car Club exclusively uses plug-in electric vehicles, allowing it to always offer customers the lowest emission fleet. Through focussing on providing sustainable transport solutions, the company has enjoyed strong stakeholder support ranging from Local Authorities to car manufacturers.E-Car Club was established in 2011 and launched full-scale operations in Autumn 2012. The company continues to benefit from the early-stage expertise and the extensive network of Sustainable Venture Development Partners.
More than 31 million electric vehicles were produced, primarily in China in 2010 to 2012. The USA still has one of the lowest rates of electric-vehicle adoption -- but Elite Custom Electric Cars aims to change that by providing economical entry-level Electric City Cars.
Investment opportunities are also available via B-eco investment crowd-funding.
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