Lit Motors

The inspiration for Lit Motors came to Kim in 2003, when he was injured by a chassis while manually assembling a bio-diesel Land Rover Defender 90.

This version showcased an enclosed two-wheeled vehicle self-balanced by two single-gimbal control moment gyroscopes,[7] to be powered by lithium iron phosphate batteries.

The show model featured direct-drive in-hub motors in both wheels designed to provide a high amount of torque, stability, and traction control, while allowing for the body form to be about half the size of a car.

[8][9] Safety features are intended to include a steel unibody chassis, seat belts, airbags, and a gyroscope stability system.

[1] *Range per charge based on a constant speed of 60 mph, coefficient of drag of 0.2, and battery capacity of 13kWh, according to information on the company's Wefunder page.

[13] At the November 2012 Gigaom Roadmap Conference, a Lit representative said that the company had "another couple years’ engineering work before it's really ready to go on a small scale production.

"[18] On May 24, 2016, at the Pioneers.io Festival, Danny Kim presented on the Lit AEV stating, "I know that if we put 20 million dollars into our bank account today, we'll be able to deliver it in 2 years - 24 months.

Forbes also commented on the lack of progress due to low fundraising: "Despite Kim’s grand vision, few investors were willing to bet on the company.

Company postings throughout the rest of 2016 on social media continued to show a rough model "EP-4" prototype driven at low speed.

Lit closed out the post by announcing a new funding goal of $9 million to develop a fully drivable prototype.

In August, Lit announced the hiring of Stefan Schäper, an ex-Audi employee, as the VP of Chassis and Integration.

[11] On April 1, 2024, Lit announced the development of a new “pathfinder” chassis to serve as “a low cost iteration exploring our new vehicle architecture and validate our new embedded and balance system at a standstill.” [30] The Kubo is a cargo scooter design dubbed the "pick-up truck of the developing world.