Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) co-founder Martin Eberhard has joined the advisory board of BRD motorcycles in San Francisco, according to The Wall Street Journal. Eberhard is generally reluctant in taking up an advisory role in startups, but he gave his consent readily to join BDR Motorcycle.
According to Eberhard, “They are not trying to cobble together parts or buy their tech from Chinese or Italian motor suppliers. They have a world-class battery, one of the best I’ve seen. And they treat safety as a religion.”
BDR looks promising
San Francisco based BDR Motorcycles (Faster Inc) raised $1 million in seed funding to commercialize its all electric RedShift racing bikes. Previously, the motorcycle company raised $850,000 to revamp the design of its battery technology, helping it to lower cost and enhance performance. It has differentiated its design by using “small format cells” rather than “pouch cells” according to Chief Executive Marc Fenigstein. Tesla also goes by same the battery strategy.
In the distribution segment, BRD entered into a deal with BMW Motorcycles of San Francisco, which agreed to carry the startup range of motorcycles beginning in 2014.
BRD RedShift is priced at $14,995 (starting price), excluding federal and state incentives for purchasing electric vehicles. Redshift can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.3 seconds, according to Fenigstein. Production of 1,000 units of RedShifts will be started in 2014.
BRD Motorcycles are making bikes to compete with electric motorbike brands like Brammo Inc. or Mission Motors along with racing bike brands like Yamaha and Kawasaki.
Over the past couple of weeks, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been facing bad press due to a fire incident. The stock has been volatile this week, although still trading over $170 per share since the middle of the last month.
Some investors feel that the downward movement in the stock is the result of the bullish sentiments that Tesla has been enjoying throughout this year. Shares, however, did not touch the $200 mark, which can be an emotional break point for some investors.
The United States government shutdown may be playing an important part in the decline of Tesla stocks. Government shutdown in the United States continued for this week as well which led Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s stock to take a dip along with three major stocks: Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Netflix, Inc. (NSADAQ:NFLX) and LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD.
