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FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY
THE DREAM BEGAN IN A GARAGE
A workplace accident sparked a powerful vision when Lit Motors founder, Daniel Kim, was a young inventor/car mechanic. Having traveled to Europe & Asia the year before, he thought,
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"Why am I building a four passenger car, when over half of the world are drive them alone. What if I cut the car in half?...And make a two-wheeled car that could reduce global traffic and emissions?”
This led to a bold mission - inventing a self-balancing, gyro-stabilized electric vehicle that’s just as fun & sexy as a motorcycle, but combined with the safety and dependability of a car. Persevering through challenges, global economic crises, and investment cycles, Dan's resilience and determination have driven Lit Motors forward for 20 years. Now, the AEV C-1 is closer than ever to changing the future of transportation.
Maker/Builder
2003: First Company & Inception of the C-1
Founder Daniel Kim sets out to redesign the perfect SUV; rearchitecting & doubling the efficiency by implementing Bio-Diesel on two Land Rover Defender platforms. Dan designs, fabricates, and assembles two sets of chassis, shocks, front & rear axles, differentials, drivetrain, steering, and wheels.
Through these builds, he learned the automotive development & prototype production process; bill of materials, purchasing, parts procurement, sequence of assembly, integration, quality, and testing. ​During this phase of development, Danny had a build accident, and the 'aha' moment for building a self-balancing two-wheeled car.
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2004: Drivetrain & Sub-Systems
Vehicle architecture and component placement are established. Engines were then mounted into the chassis, and the procurement and assembly of all sub-systems began. Once both engines/drivetrains were in place, Danny began integrating the firewall, wiring harness, brakes, all fluids, cooling, and fuel systems.
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2004-2005: Integration Phase
At this time, the modified body, exterior-interior, lighting, and remaining systems were fitted, installed, & integrated.
2005: Testing
To conduct reliability tests, Danny drove 8000+ miles across the country twice to work the bugs out of the completed vehicles. After this, Danny heads to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)/Brown/MIT to research industrial design, engineering, and prototype development.
Lit Motors begins...
2008: First Appearance of the C-1
Dan's first sketch of the C-1 brought together a team of designers from RISD, engineers from Olin College of Engineering, and MIT.
2009: First Gyro-Stabilizer / Leap of Faith
On a shoestring budget, using Arduino and RC components, the first gyro was made. At this point, Danny realized this could work on a full-sized vehicle platform.
2010: Vision of the Future of Transportation
After raising $40,000, Lit Motors was incorporated, moved to San Francisco, & established an office at 1080 Folsom. This kicked off the development of EP-1, stability systems R&D, & fundraising.
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(Click here for Daniel's 2010 outlook on the future of transportation)
2011: Product Development Begins
Danny & designer (TJ) adopt best practices of human factors and H-Point; establishing a new foundation for the AEV vehicle architecture. This paves the way to create a new exterior design for reducing Lit's market liability. Simultaneously, the engineering team develops EP-2.
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2011: AEV C-1 Full-Scale Concept
With the full scale prototype (MVP), the Lit Motors team conducts a qualitative clinic; proving market demand on this hardware intensive deep tech venture. Due to the results, the Harvard Business School writes a HBS Case Study on the creative business innovation.
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2012: EP-3 "Pathfinder"
First full scale driving prototype. AKDQ steel unibody chassis. Hand formed using english wheel, stretcher/shrinker, spot welder, with full scale gyroscopes integrated. Pioneering the vehicle architecture for generations to come.​
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2012: EP-3 ready for TechCrunch Disrupt
​Lit Motors launches at TechCrunch Disrupt. With plans for production & showcasing the EP-3 prototype, this presentation attracted the interest of the New York Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, BBC, Yahoo, Der Spiegel, and major OEMs.
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2013: Investors
Silicon Valley Luminaries invest in Lit Motors to reach critical milestone. This star-studded angel group was led by Yves Béhar, Damon Way, Steve Rocco, Kelly Slater, Mark Pincus, Scott Belsky, and Jung-Ju Kim.
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2014: EP-4 Development
During this phase, the team grew from 13 to 38 visionaries, and the engineering focus was dynamics, controls, firmware, embedded system, EV drivetrain, chassis, CMGs, and aero/design.
2014: First Test Drive of EP-4
With the integration of EP-4 complete, the engineering team takes the AEV out for test drive at the Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca. The team found the stability system worked and was a viable solution for urban commuting. Unfortunately, with an incomplete dynamic model, the initial tech reduction strategy of the PhD controls team was non-viable.​
2014: Stability Tests on Ice
The team continues R&D, pushing the limitations of the stability system on our two-wheel platform by driving on ice.
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2015: Lit CEO in Major Motorcycle Accident
Following Founder & CEO Daniel Kim's motorcycle accident in 2015, operations scaled back as he went through a lengthy 4.5 year recovery. The repercussions of the accident reaffirmed Dan's conviction & determination to bring safety to two wheeled vehicles.
2015: David Bailey joins Team
Lit Motors signs David Bailey (retired Honeywell Dynamicist) for controls & dynamics, after an intro from former CTO of NASA, Mason Peck
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2015-2019: Surgery & Recovery
Founder/CEO Daniel receives hip (2015) & ankle (2017) replacement following accident, & gets back to work while recovering in a wheelchair. Despite prolonged orthopedic corrections & delays, Lit stays afloat. During this time, the company engaged with major OEMs & industry experts.
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2016: Michael Bailey joins Team
Lit Motors signs Michael Bailey (Lead Systems Engineer - Raytheon) for firmware embedded development.​
2016: Volker Kaese first meeting
During his recovery, Daniel Kim met Volker Kaese (former Head of Innovation Management - Audi) for first time.
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2018: Business Development
Danny also wrote & filed new patents for Lit Motors w/ David Bailey & Michael Bailey. The startup automotive industry finally has new precedence of success; GM's acquisition of Cruise AV and Tesla on track to become net income positive.
2019: Danny reignites meetings with Volker
Lit Motors has meetings in Europe and conversations with OEMs continue.
2019-2020: PDX Integration Lab opens
Lit Motors moves majority of operations to Portland, OR, hitting the ground running in a 30,000 sqft. vehicle lab.
This is the foundation for development & recovery from hibernation as Lit Motors 2.0.
2020-2021: Pandemic Hits
As traction builds, the pandemic spreads, and the world adjusts to shutdowns & Covid protocols. Danny took this as an opportunity to reimagine & rebuild the Land Rover platform project from the ground up; 80% of the vehicle now built from scratch.
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2022: Volker joins Team
Lit Motors signs Volker Kaese as Chief Product Officer (CPO) as he leaves Audi.
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2022- 2023: Dream Team - Prototype to Production
Lit Motors signs on Stefan Schaeper (former Showcar Project Lead - Audi), Bill Webb (Partner - Huge Design), and Gary Gisler (former Head of CMG Development -Honeywell).
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2023: Lit Motors partners with Ideenion
Lit signs Mirko Konta, CEO of Ideenion as an advisor & signs Ideenion to be our manufacturing & prototype development partner to accelerate the next phase. Mirko brings 20+ years of professional automotive development experience. He and his team have developed over 40 concept vehicles for high performance global car brands; Audi, VW, BMW, Porsche, Apollo and more.
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(Watch interview with Mirko here)
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2024: Wefunder Campaign
Lit Motors launched its first equity crowdfunding campaign through Wefunder. Through this campaign, preorders increased by 58% & raised over $1.6M towards the next prototype. During this time, the team built a full body chassis, a dynamic model, & validated our core technology with new sub-scale CMGs. Lit Motors shared weekly updates with investors & answered questions for transparency.
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(Check out our Wefunder campaign page here)
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2024: Developmental Chassis
Portland team builds a pathfinder 2.0 prototype. This low cost chassis is an early iterative step to ensure the full scale gyros & controls system work together, based on our recently issued core control patent. This is to collect testing data for validation of the full scale stability system, and inform our partners at Ideenion for the next iteration of the vehicle architecture and component placement.
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2025: Brian Hamilton joins Lit Motors
Lit Motors signs Brian Hamilton (retired Engineering Fellow - Honeywell Aerospace) and Brian Underhill (retired Systems and Controls Engineer - Honeywell).
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(Watch Brian Hamilton interview)
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2025: Tech Demo - ARPA-E
The Lit Motors team showcases the groundbreaking sub-scale technology demo, along with the EP-4 & C-1 concept models.
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2025-2026: X-1 Prototype Development
With our Wefunder campaign closing in the spring of 2025, we saw there continues to be high demand & support for our vehicle. We put together a comprehensive update of the accomplishments over those 12 months, which were the next steps to building our X-1 experience prototype. The X-1 will capture the thrill, efficiency, safety, and reliability of our EV.
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