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Emerson Gottardi, Giovanni Cataldi Neto and Sandro Lima pooled their skills and a whole lot of perseverance to develop one of the first electric vehicles in Brazil. From 2012 through 2013, Business, Branding and Design Consultant, Sandro Lima, started development of certain products in the field of renewable energy for a business group from Greater Porto Alegre. Among them, the design of a hybrid solar and wind energy tower, and a station for recharging electric vehicles – which ended up evolving into an even more visionary project, one of the country's first electric cars.
Sandro Lima hooked up entrepreneur Emerson Gottardi to the project, one of the few specialists in electric vehicles, who is responsible for the development of a number of products sold on the market today. Also joining up was Giovanni Cataldi Neto, an expert in Recruitment of National and International Investors and Structuring of Financial Operations, now serving as the main person responsible for channeling investments to make the project viable.
The aim is to develop a vehicle that is 100% electric, created especially for big cities where lots of people need to travel a few kilometers per day, an average of 40 km a day, economically, without taking up much space, and sustainably. The Liggo fills this gap.
The plan is to unveil the prototype by the end of 2016. The entrepreneurs are also studying a collective financing arrangement along the lines of crowdfunding to finish the project.
The vehicle's chassis and electric engine are already mounted. "This is probably one of the first projects that is 100% national. We created the design and the brand (Liggo), and registered it with the INPI at the end of 2013. We believe that the market for renewable energy will be one of the most promising in Brazil in coming decades. The current model based on fossil fuels is no longer compatible with the needs of the public or the planet, and at present it's also less interesting to investors," observed Giovanni Cataldi Neto.
The Liggo has also been conceived in a model with a dynamic chassis that can be adapted to an electric utility vehicle, or a vehicle for riding around inside company spaces, like a golf car. The trio of entrepreneurs also has a project that goes beyond the electric vehicle. They have developed a vehicle for the physically handicapped, and a mini kart.