Model Sondors EV could come to life through StartEngine crowdfunding

Last year, entrepreneur Storm Sondors launched an incredibly successful IndieGogo crowd funding campaign that saw thousands plunk down $499 (plus as much as $194 for shipping and handling) for a basic, but sweet-looking, electric fat bike. While he's since grown his bicycle business and now offers a few different models on his Go Sondors website, his electric vehicle ambitions apparently exceed the two-wheeled world.

Meet the Model Sondors: a decently-styled, three-wheel EV with seating for three and a $10,000 price tag from the newly-formed Sondors Electric Car Company. It still early days – a physical prototype isn't expected to be shown before the end of 2017 – so details are understandably scarce, but we're told that it will feature an aluminum body and come with battery pack options that allow for either 50, 100, or 200 miles of range.

According to the outfit, it can be "charged by plugging it into the same outlet you plug a smartphone into every day." This would seem to indicate they will use relatively small batteries to keep charging times within usable boundaries, but we expect there will likely be a 220 volt, J1772 option for faster juice ups. Similar to his bikes, vehicles will be ordered online and delivered to your door.

Given his history with crowd funding, it's no surprise that Sondors is going that route for this endeavor as well. However, instead of IndieGogo or Kickstarter, this project has a StartEngine campaign to get the EV rolling. Basically, it offers individuals the chance to buy $12 common shares in the company, with a minimum investment of $120, to raise an initial $1million in capital with which to build the working prototype. Besides giving you equity, this investment will also act as your reservation.

A further round of financing will be undertaken once that first Model Sondors is produced and a pre-sales program conducted to judge expected capital needs. Not afraid, apparently, of being called out as being overly-ambitious (or, possibly naive), Sondors hopes to exceed as many as 120,000 initial orders and says his plan has a path to profitability and will give strong returns when it meets its objectives.

We can't say whether Sondors is crazy like a fox or just plain crazy. While the video (above) for the initial funding campaign features the man behind the plan swimming in the deep end of the eccentricity pool, he does have a track record, with his bikes, of putting together an unlikely bargain. On the other hand, though, the difference between producing an electric car – even a three-wheeled one – and an electric bicycle is not dissimilar from building a bird house or one for human habitation.

Still, we have to admire his pluck and wish him every success and the best of luck. We'll certainly be keeping an eye on the Sondors Electric Car Facebook page for developments.