In the first week of July 2016, Ambassador of Italy H.E. Armando Varricchio spent several days visiting the San Francisco Bay Area. One of his stops included a ribbon cutting for Energica Motor Company at 53 Page Street in San Francisco. Energica is a high-performing supersport electric motorcycle company and the San Francisco galleria is the first display hall in the United States. The opening of Galleria Energica in San Francisco highlights its prominence in Energica’s expansion plans worldwide.
“We’re very excited to open Galleria Energica in California, the homeland of electric vehicles,” says Livia Cevolini, CEO Energica Motor Company S.p.A., “Customers will enjoy Energica motorcycles in a unique display hall, and can also count on a service point that will support them at any time after sales.”
Energica’s American odyssey began with a “California dream” tour along 450 miles of California’s iconic roads, a tour that ended on May 16, 2016. Bill Levasseur, the rider of this adventure, crossed Californian, from Santa Monica, to Long Beach, from the Bixby Bridge to the Golden Gate, stopping at The Rock Store in Los Angeles and at Alice’s Restaurant in San Francisco.
Energica Motor Company S.p.A. (EMC) is the first Italian manufacturer of supersport electric motorcycles. Manufactured in the Italian Motor Valley of Soliera, Modena, Italy, the company was officially founded in 2014 with the aim of creating the first high-powered electric motorcycles, but the electric motorcycle project actually began in 2010.
Technology is one of the key points of Energica motorcycles. The 100% Italian-manufactured electric sportbike project was born thanks to CRP Group, a pioneer in the world of international motorsports and a hub for its state-of-the-art technologies. CRP Group acted as a technology incubator and as financial investor until EMC decided to spin off and become an independent factory. The new Modena factory was inaugurated in June 2016 and will serve as Energica’s main headquarters, as well as production and distribution point for the Energica Ego and Energica Eva models.
L’Italo-Americano interviewed Carlo Iacovini, Energica’s Marketing and Corporate Relations Director, and asked him to share the process by which the company established its first galleria in San Francisco.
“I was fully aware about California being a real potential market for Energica. The overall heritage coming from Silicon Valley and recent technological trends are very close to Energica values. We started developing a network of contacts and business meetings in 2014 and we quickly realized there was high potential.
At that time, we did the “Where’s my Ego tour” with six bikes and more than 300 test rides in the U.S. iconic places, beginning from Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside, then in Los Angeles and New York. It was the first step to test the market and get feedback from our potential customers.
“The Italian business community is very active and local institutions, beginning with Consul General Mauro Battocchi, have been of great concrete help introducing and providing a first set of contacts. The interest in Energica was really high and we had the chance to meet some of the most representative key players and executives in tech companies like Apple, Google, Tesla, sharing experiences and learning about the market.
“Since then we have always been doing business in San Francisco, where I personally spent a long time developing strategic partnerships, like the one with ChargePoint, and preparing the landing strategy of Energica in Bay Area.
“Los Angeles, San Diego, Oregon, Las Vegas, and New York, are all places in the pipeline for future development but we opted for San Francisco as the first base for U.S. operations.
California is the cradle of the electric vehicle industry and more recently is evolving as the first choice location for automotive brands dealing with innovation in transports.
“It has been something natural to open the Galleria Energica in San Francisco when we wanted to show our brand values and provide full service for our customers. In fact, we have a service center in Redwood City as well to handle maintenance for our clients, and we are confident Silicon Valley customers will be able to enjoy our products.”
L’Italo-Americano asked Iacovini to expand on the story of Energica Eva’s 450 miles along California roads.
“The Cal1 tour was part of the launching strategy for Energica Eva. Our motorcycles have special features like fast charge technology, allowing recharging of the battery in 20-25 minutes using the automotive standard fast charge network. This is a real game changer in the industry because it ends any range-anxiety and makes the bike as easy as a traditional engine product.
“We realized that the best way to prove this feature was by doing a long trip and showing how amazing riding Eva is. Highways One and 101 were the perfect locations for riding with an electric sport motorcycle so we engaged an ex-veteran as the rider and we did the tour, stopping at the luxury show, “The Quail Motorcycle Gathering”, at Quail Lodge in Carmel, to officially present Eva.” This is where an Italian electric motorcycle met California’s iconic roads.
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