FELA Mission Elaborated

It is a brief on a business purpose, primary markets, and region of operation. It may include... fundamentals such as the values or premises, competitive advantages, or the vision:

FELA Purpose

One-third of human energy consumption and consequent harm to environ comes from transportation.

​​In our post-industrial age, when the mass of workers don’t commute between homes to jobs, urban trips have become personal i.e. sporadic and frequent (the US avg 4.7/day). Two out of three cars in cities are occupied by a driver alone.

Urban public transit and cars are redundant in performance thus in size and weight: an individual can move around a city in a one-seat personal vehicle (PV) using dozens of times less energy and material, at 50km/h. Granted, this PV won’t provide limousine-like comfort and prestige, however, by abandoning cars, the human race will be 20% closer to sustainability.

FELA Co promotes new active PV to help solve transport-induced financial, health, and environmental problems.

FELA Distinction

From a velomobile, the closest analog, FELA differs in greater agility, mobility, convenience, ergonomics, safety, and economy. We’ve developed FELA and ensured technical feasibility at acceptable production costs. Now it’s time to persuade people of meeting their mobility and physical activity needs with a 40x leaner vehicle.

FELA Primary Markets

1. Utility Cyclists who want to ride in any trip conditions to carry bigger cargo, or cycle-commuters who are uncomfortable in or unfit for city traffic, or live in hilly areas;

2. Eco-conscious drivers who quit on, or can't drive for any reason (an impairment or criminal record), redirect transportation spending to more rewarding pursuits;

3. Adventurous cyclists of vibrant lifestyle who want thrilling ride still safer, more physically-emotionally engaging and eco-friendly than MTB, motorbike or ATV;

4. Cycle-tourists who want to comfortably travel for few hours at 30-50 kph without range anxiety tapping to ambient sources of energy (sun, wind, streams) to the wilderness unreachable by or restricted to cars;

5. Walkers who would cycle within or beyond their usual itinerary in the car-like vehicle and without car-related hassles and expenses;

6. Leisure cyclists, disappointed with treadmill/stationary bikes, want to combine a workout with joyride running their errands or socializing in park bicycle trails;

7. Mobile operatives: law enforcement officers, rangers, any service personnel who ride horses, bikes in line of their duty; take out/pizza/mail/etc. delivery, parks keepers... anyone who have to move up to a heavy cargo with frequent stops;

8. Communities who want to live and raise children in the car-free livable smart cities up to 20 km size or a million population;

9. Rehab patients, for whom FELA is both mobility and physiotherapeutic device that increases both independence and healing rate;

10. Teens or students who want to have “cool” PV before eligibility or solvency for a car, or better yet to grow into car-free adulthood;

11. RV dwellers who can replace big expensive gas-guzzlers with ultra-light, compact, energy-independent vehicle that can be part of their home (tent) or hauling a cabin, “smart-for-one”;

12. Golfers or Park Goers who want to ride FELA all their way from home to golf field or conservation area closed to cars and around it;

13. Organizations: any who have funds allotted to solving the sustainable transportation problems, tour agencies promoting adventurous eco-friendly and educational travels, the military who can use FELA as the lowest signature scout all-terrain vehicle.

FELA Co Regions of Operation

Although FELA can be retrofitted with an extra battery to become hwy-worthy, it defies FELA's main intent as an active vehicle, because at hwy cruise a human contributes only 5% of the needed power. So FELA's main applications are in urban areas or adventure travel in the wilderness.

FELA total costs to own are 40th of car. That makes FELA an unmatched proposition for low-income people in regions with typically poor road networks or with undrivable terrains. Socioeconomic development of these rural regions needs a versatile vehicle to move crops to the local market and do the job in hundreds of times greener than the extremely polluting two-stroke engines.

FELA is not meant to serve interstate travel or freight. To complement FELA for intercity travels, high-speed-rails are to be developed.

FELA Co Values and Vision

We value wisdom, reason, rationality, creative efficiency, decency to self, others, and Nature. We see mass-adopted FELA as the collective actions solution, rather than a problem, which is the case with cars.

The urbanites will ride FELA as swift as on scooter but much safer; the cycle-tourists will enjoy energy independence on long trips; daredevils will be thrilled with the most aggressive, still safe, ride they’re capable of; owners will maintain FELA with ease for less than $500 a year.

Mobility with FELA is hundred times resource-efficient and healthy that will improve human capital.