B.C. single-seat automaker aims to break into the electric car market

Jerry Kroll is no stranger to getting behind the wheel.

He's a race-car driver by trade, and has represented numerousprofessional motorists, including the late B.C. driver Greg Moore.

Kroll isalso the CEO of Electra Meccanica, a local company aiming to bring a single-seat electric car to the global electric carmarket.

"My background is motor sports and all the cars a race car driver wants to drive are single seaters," he told host Gloria Macarenko on CBC's Our Vancouver.

"Applying that to the commuter world, [where]many people are driving by themselves... it just made a lot of sense."

A different kind of commute

Kroll says 83 per cent of people drive by themselves in a typical four-person car that occupies a full parking spot.

But his brainchild, the three-wheeled single-seater calledSolo, takes less than half of thatspace and stilloffers the driver enough roomfor a full cart of groceries in the trunk.

He thinks it's the next step in the evolution of vehicles.

"You don't use your laptop when you walk along the sidewalk to check your e-mail. You use a smaller device that's mission specific."

The vehicle is approved for highway use and can reach a speed of 130 km/h. It takes about four hours to fully charge the lithium ion battery after it's beenfully drained.

The first fleet of Kroll's Solo isbeing built in collaboration with world-renowned coach builderIntermeccanica.

While Intermeccanica has long specialized inbuilding replica Porsche Speedsters and Roadsters, the company is now turning itsattention to themass market with Solo.

"You've got businesses wanting to use this as a delivery vehicle," Krollsaid, adding that it's also a perfect fit for new drivers since they won't be distracted by passengers,

He saidthey are looking into making an autonomous model that would be driverless.

The Solo retails for$20,000 each and Krollsaid he hopes to have200,000of thevehicles builtwithin the next twelve months.

Click here to watch Kroll chat with Gloria Macarenko

With files from CBC'sOur Vancouver