July Newsletter

Dear Lit Motors Community,

Happy July!

We just got back from the Deep Tech Week SF Showcase, and what a week it was. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, asked questions, climbed in for a closer look, and shared our excitement for the Nexus. Connecting with so many of you in person — fellow builders, future riders, and longtime supporters — was one of the highlights of our month.

I’ve also been sitting on some news for weeks now, and I finally get to share it. But first, I want to pull back the curtain and introduce you to the people and the systems doing the foundational work behind the Nexus: the controls, the steering, the gyros, and the team making our vehicle real. They’re the reason the news exists at all.

The build that started it all

Depicted above is the discovery Engineering Prototype, EP-4. 110,000 hrs of development. Every hard lesson resulted in a win for the dawn of sustainable mobility. Its foundational vehicle architecture + our frozen control model is the guiding light for the Beta prototype we’re building today.

ALIGNING OUR STARS & PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Pre-Production with industry experts

We know our next step to production requires timely development with industry experts. The right partners get us there faster, smarter, and with fewer expensive lessons along the way.

First, our partners at Ideenion. Mirko Konta and his team have built 40+ concept vehicles for Audi, VW, BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche. Having that kind of experience and their prototyping lab behind us is getting us to a production-ready AEV faster and cheaper than we ever could on our own. 

NVIDIA’s AV Alpamayo / DRIVE OS / GPUs power our self-balancing and autonomous systems development. It’s the same hardware platform used across most of the autonomous vehicle industry, which matters for reliability.

We are ready to sign a final contract with an F1 Aero development partner ;). Instability in the oil supply chain through the Strait of Hormuz has created a new dream: driving 1,000 miles for $13.50 (the cost of two cups of coffee). Lit fits that moment perfectly, and partnering with this F1 engineering firm will make it a reality.

Leading the work is myself,  Volker Kaese (product), Stefan Schäper (chassis and integration), Christian Schroem (embedded systems), and Natalia Amijo & Bill Webb (design). Here are a few short introductions — worth a few minutes if you want to see who’s actually building this thing:

• Mirko Konta (Ideenion) → https://youtu.be/8Qu9UgooYq0

• Volker Kaese → https://youtu.be/NY0GwL_60lM

• Stefan Schäper → https://youtu.be/CAzdo-4I1DU

• Christian Schroem (Embedded) → https://youtu.be/hkyJfXYjiD8

• Bill Webb (Design) → https://youtu.be/-brfJHE52d8

  
  

To create a new category of vehicle — a revolutionary two-wheeler platform — automotive best practices are critical when establishing driver ergonomics and safety via airbag deployment. And we’re designing for global homologation with Euro NCAP safety standards. For a two-wheeler, that’s phenomenal, and it’s what’s going to set us apart.

We started this on a full-scale seating concept wooden buck. It looks rough, but moving quick and cheap is how you get the architecture right before you cut a single piece of aluminum.

Design and Full-scale chassis coming together

In this world of technology, it’s common to overlook style. We’re not gonna do that. Turning heads, being the center of attention of your friend group — that’s just as valuable as cutting 20% off your commute. Besides performance, that’s what sets you apart from every other vehicle on the road. This newfound freedom has to look good.

So our style stays uncompromised as we create the exterior design package. Lighting, ingress, egress, sight lines, component placement, aero, and cooling are the key considerations before we fill in the Mad Libs of structure, safety, and performance spec.

Room for two

The Nexus isn’t a solo machine, it seats two, driver in front and passenger behind. Before we commit that layout to aluminum, we mock it up in wood and actually sit in it. Legroom, seat angle, where your knees land, how it feels to ride two-up. And when you’re riding alone, that same space carries 99% of the things you’d haul on an errand run.

Developmental Prototype X-1

The “Mule” or developmental X-1 prototype V1 is a quick and dirty chassis platform using the product specifications Ideenion established. We are really excited to feel the experience and test with users at the top of our target demographic, to ensure the joy & comfort of our next prototype.

Drive-by-wire Steering 

One of our biggest leaps this spring was the steering: the last big technical unknown standing between us and the X-1 prototype, and our partners at Ideenion knocked it out of the park.

They got a drive-by-wire system with mechanical redundancy working, where steering, braking, and the accelerator all run electronically, demoed on a prototype vehicle. It’s a big deal for two reasons: we can now test the vehicle safely by remote, and it gives us a plug-and-play foundation to build our autonomous driving system on later. From here, the rest of the steering work is the kind of well-understood engineering that streamlines the process.

I am excited for the light at the end of the tunnel before we go HAM on the X-1. Breakdown of the steering here: https://mailchi.mp/litmotors.com/june-newsletter-ideenion-steering-system

Gyros

The key part inside the Nexus is a control moment gyroscope unlocking new efficiency — the same hardware NASA and Honeywell use to control satellites in space. It creates a force that elevates your game to defy gravity. The result: traffic and parking become a breeze, you save money, and become the talk of the town.

Here’s a close look at our latest scale CMGs — the stator, rotor, and precision-machined housings.

Controls 

A key aspect of the vehicle is the Control model — and Brian Hamilton was the anchor and solved it in 2025. And the news I’ve been sitting on: our controls and vehicle technology stack have all hit TRL 3!

If you’re not fluent in NASA’s technology readiness level, TRL 3 means the core physics is proven in real hardware. We’re not a “Moonshot” anymore. The core tech works. Now let’s build it and level up to TRL 4-6 / pre-production!

What’s next

We’re getting ready to build the unibody chassis of the Nexus (X-1) — the stage of maturity that Aptera, Telo, and Infinite Machine reached last year. Our deep tech robotics was a massive hurdle to overcome. Now we’re actually poised to integrate the gyros, controls, and steering into one vehicle you can actually drive.

Pre-production is the milestone we’re driving toward now!

If this update made you as excited as it makes me, forward it to one person to make a pre-order and see what’s coming next. That’s how this community grows — one believer at a time.

My best,

Danny Kim

Founder / CEO