Inside Voltz’s e-bikes factory in the Brazilian Amazon

It’s no surprise that Voltz made a multimillion-dollar investment to have its own electric motorcycle factory in the Manaus Free Trade Zone, right next to the Amazon rainforest region in Brazil. The company’s aim is to take advantage of the region’s fiscal benefits and optimize its – until now, rather troubled – pace of manufacturing and product delivery to customers. However, the factory is also a bet on the future: the company wants to be a reference in electric mobility in Brazil, and will invest more to achieve this goal.

To demonstrate how it intends to proceed with that plan, the company promoted a visit to the new plant in the capital of the Amazonas state. The 11,000 square meters plant is equipped with two production lines, of which one will produce the EV1 Sport scooters while the other will be dedicated to the assembly of the EVS street bikes.

But there is space left in the two sheds that make up the factory area, and soon a third line will be added. It will be the production site of the Miles e-tricycle, aimed at the B2B market to serve logistics companies active in the so-called “last mile” space.

The Miles production will start with a large contract: Brazilian gas giant Ultragaz agreed, for an undisclosed amount, the acquisition of 500 tricycles to deliver domestic gas cylinders. The distributor is part of Grupo Ultra, which controls Ipiranga gas station network and invested 5 million Brazilian reais ($1 million) in Voltz last year – another 95 million Brazilian reais ($19 million) was invested by Creditas.

At the factory, a detail that catches the eye is the reduced size of the production lines compared to a traditional manufacturer. According to the plant’s operations director, Adelino Cardoso, building an electric motorcycle comprises a smaller number of steps compared to a combustion engine. “To make one of our bikes, we use less than 100 screws, in total”, said Cardoso, to make a comparison – a conventional bike uses more than 200 screws.

In addition, the lean structure is also reflected in the number of employees. The plant will officially start production on 06/06, with 77 employees and an estimated initial production volume of 800 to 1,000 motorcycles. By the end of the year, the goal is to reach 150 employees and 5,000 motorcycles/month, already reaching one third of the plant’s total production capacity.

Cardoso arrived at Voltz in 2021, with a renowned track record in the two-wheel market. He spent ten years at the helm of the Harley Davidson factory in Manaus, helping to revitalize the brand among national customers during his stint. When he arrived at Voltz, aligned with the vision of the startup’s CEO Renato Villar, the executive spared no effort to bring the most advanced products from the international market to the automaker.

“We apply successful practices from national factories to the equipment and the electric motorcycle manufacturing model, a standard that is not available there”, Cardoso said. When he says “there”, he refers to China, where some of the biggest current competitors in the segment are located.

Not that Chinese technology isn’t present in Voltz’s bikes: several components (including the main one, the battery) are still part of the package. However, the plan to be inserted in the Free Zone in Manaus is to take advantage of the ecosystem to increase the number of nationalized components in the make-up of the bikes, also battery-wise. “There is already a PPB (Basic Productive Process) underway in Manaus for the manufacture of lithium batteries,” he said.

According to Cardoso, the change will help Voltz to maintain competitive prices, avoiding the need to increase prices in the face of high exchange rates. Today an EV1 Sport starts at R$14,900 ($3,120), while the EVS costs at least R$19,900 ($4,160) in its version with a battery.

Catching up before expanding

Voltz’s initial goal of the production in Manaus is to bring the pent-up demand up to date. According to Cardoso, around 8,000 consumers are waiting for an electric motorcycle from the brand, and the goal is to fulfil the orders on the list in the next three to four months.

Voltz had to find a way to operate during the pandemic due to difficulties in the manufacturing and delivery process involved in its business. Faced with complaints from dissatisfied consumers, the firm even disbursed more than 2 million Brazilian reais worth of Uber vouchers to appease those unimpressed with the delays.

According to Manoel Fonseca, partner and marketing director of the company, the struggles were valid for the company to learn from mistakes, including not taking steps larger than its legs in the creation of the factory in Manaus. “We are still amateurs (compared to the big manufacturers), but now we can’t, and we won’t make any more mistakes,” he said.