Car designer René Renger has been dreaming of his own electric motorcycle for more than 14 years. In the podcast, he reveals how the anime series Dragonball is supposed to help him.
René Renger quit a secure job at VW and spurned billionaire Elon Musk for his Novus bike. Novus
René Renger describes his Novus bike as a new type of lifestyle product. The 39-year-old wants to open up new target groups for motorcycling with the super futuristic electric light motorcycle. And this despite the fact that the two-wheeler is not even available to buy yet. He has already aroused the interest of a first – very prominent – potential driver: Elon Musk. The billionaire and Tesla boss became aware of the electric motorcycle at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2019 in Las Vegas. But Renger and his co-founder refused to sell a prototype.
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“I’m still not sure whether it was the stupidest or the smartest thing in my life, that remains to be seen,” said Renger, looking back on this decision. They were open to an investment, but simply giving away the product into which they had already invested eight years of time and energy simply didn’t feel right, he says in the Gründerszene podcast.
One problem follows the next
Inspired by Musk’s interest in his product, Renger gave up his dream job as a car designer at VW. “That was a really great time. I was also able to design a few cars for the series, but somehow I had the feeling that there was something bigger and that it might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity – even though everything actually spoke against it.” But the timing was bad: the first prototype was built ready for Corona weddings. At that time, a maximum of two households were allowed to meet.
Out of necessity, Renger applied to the “Höhle der Löwen.” With success: he and his co-founder Marcus Weidig were invited to the show. However, a deal does not come about. “Nico Rosberg (then Leo at DHDL) would have been someone who would have been a good fit for us in principle. But we didn’t fit in so well.”
He explains why in the current episode of “How Startup Works.” He also reveals why it is currently difficult to bring futuristic electric motorcycles onto the road – sales were originally planned from the end of 2022. Now production is scheduled to start at the end of this year. A challenge, also financially. The founders have had to take out loans several times. Renger even had to ask his parents for money. You can find out how the Braunschweig startup still managed to stay afloat financially in this episode of “How Startup Works”.
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