Ecomodding company help/Ideas/comments needed!
 

Hi you all,

I have learned here so much that I will start my own ecomodding business. All the basic stuff what you already know/write here, but also something new where I need to apply patents etc...

But the basic idea is to improve cars fuel economy.

At first the target area will be europe and european models, but some small parts that can be easily send/used to states will be also available.

But the first thing is to get a good name for the company. So if you have any good ideas post them here.

fueleconomyparts.com etc.

I wouldnt want to use eco-mods.com and because that is almost the same as ecomodder :/ However that is the best name so far I have thougt of...

do you thin its ok to use ecomods etc similar name?

BR,

Vesa

Ecoparts.com?

I always wanted to build a business doing something that just about anyone else could do, and call it something like:

"You could do this yourself for less."

Or maybe use that for the business' tag line. :shrug:

I like "wast not want not..."

or mayhaps waist or waste :)

I don't know anything about marketing in Finland, but if you can spread ecomodding to people who don't DIY, I'm glad to hear it.

Find some members of your target audience, and bounce a few names off of them.

I'd suggest ecoauto.com, but it's taken. (Appears to be eco, but not automotive.)

Vekke, will you focus only on producing parts, or will you also do mechanical tuning and/or driving lessons? Maybe you should teach your customers a few driving techniques to allow them to use their new aero-parts at a better potential.

And if you mention that aeromods will also have a good influence on acceleration and top speed then your target audience will suddenly be much larger. Let's just hope you don't get thrown in the same basket as all the other companies claiming better performance and reduced fuel consumption.

I remember that someone here started an ecodriving company. It was about 1.5-2 years ago, does anyone remember? I wonder how it is going.

Econotopia?

Firm will mostly design the parts to be used. and parts will be manufactured by finnish subcontractors. At first I propably have to do the assembly stuff also. How ever the kits will will be so easy to assemble that anyone can do it with the included instructions.

SG will be also in my category. and also basic driving lessons.

First show car will be VW Lupo 3L ;) Target is to get it going 100MPG at steady state driving, so without P&G...

I dont know if you know, but I am a automotive engineer, currently working at valmet automotive R&D department. So i have quite good knowledge of part designing and manufacturing methods. Also I have good contacts to firms that can produce automotive parts.

If you can save 1€ every 100 km and the parts cost 50€ then it will only take 5000km to get even.

Average car age finland is 10 years so people are driving the same car long time, maybe average 200000km so basicly what if you are able to keep the kit part price under 300€ you would save 1700€.

Also the fuel prices will rice even more and also they are starting to tax more cars which pollute more, so basicly the fuel prices will rise even more. currently fuel petrol costs 5.3€/ gallon. About 70% of that is pure tax!!!. plus every yearly payed car taxes about 400-700€ per year based on your car "EPA" figures.

What I am saying that driving is more expensive here at europe ;). So people can save more money on ecomods.

NICE!

One question: Do the costs you mention on older cars include CO2 tax? [We don't have that here in RSA yet, but new cars will soon be taxed for CO2, but only at first sale, not every year].

I think with your parts you should include a booklet on economical driving techniques too :)

Yes all cars get taxed according to co2, but when you buy a new car the tax amount is also affected by co2 values. In powerful sportscar the taxes can be over half of the cars sale price. This change become reality this year so in the end of 2009 many people bougth powerful sports cars.

Booklet idea is very good.

Taken up, as is ecotopia.
On the .com TLD, just about everything with eco in the domain name is already taken or parked in hopes of selling it off for big $$$.

That's a difficult car to showcase anything with, as it already has many ecomods done to it by VW, and is already highly efficient.
There aren't that many of them around either : 69 "3L" are for sale in Europe according to autoscout24, out of 2056 Lupo's on their site.

It's also quite an old car - the youngest are already 5 years old, so they're already beyond half their useful life, so they only have half the time left to repay any investment in ecomods.

There are a lot of different cars out there, so you can't mod them all.
Picking the right cars to start the modding business with will be crucial.

IMO, the car you showcase should

• be popular, so you have a lot of potential customers - but not an icon like a Mini as people may be reluctant to mod it ;
• be popular in countries with higher environmental awareness, like Scandinavia - despite the green hype, a lot of people can't be bothered ;
• not be too expensive, so it's bought by people who may actually want to save some money on gas ;
• have room for some easy improvements ;
• be rather recent but not brand new ;
• not be a car that is mostly sold to leasing companies - unless you can get them or their clients interested of course ;

That's a good start !

300 euro's won't buy me a lot of car parts - a spoiler or some el-cheapo wheels .
Are you sure you can design, manufacture and sell an entire modding kit for that price ?

Unfortunately, those taxes don't take any ecomodding efforts into account.


IMHO, the entire EU should tax cars only by the amount of fuel they effectively use (i.e. tax at the pump), it's the only way that takes both engine size and the way it's driven into account.
But that's a different story .

Same thing will happen soon in RSA, but luckily here I, when an old car is roadworthy, you can drive it without having to get it re-tested every year. When I lived in Ireland for a while, I saw the people had to get their older cars checked out every year (MoT?).

I was thinking the same thing.

That makes sense. How can you tax a car on CO2 if it hasn't even been driven 10km!!!

It only makes it tougher to quote ;)

Sure.
Though they've been sought after when fuel prices went up in 2008, and Lupo 3L prices went up as well.
It can get good MPG, but by design, not by aftermarket mods.
However, it can show what could be done by such mods and may help to convince a sceptical public.

Wheelcaps could be standard sizes - but they require steel wheels, while ever fewer cars have steel wheels as standard.
Steel wheels are often used for winter tyres though, so there's a market.

Everything else would need to be made to fit the specific car.
That's a lot of design work, and a lot of different parts.


If you ever do a set for the Volvo V50, I'll buy the rear fenders :)

Find subcontractors that already make similar products and get in touch with them. If you order enough, then you'll get a good price, and maybe put your logo on the parts.

There already are companies that make grille blocks ("grille winter covers") for certain models. For example, click on the following image for Skoda covers (25-35€):

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1283365531

Yes, Arragonis, they have Fabia covers:)

For other models: There are also lots of companies that make plastic grille replacements. You can contact some of them and ask if they would make a "full" version, without the holes, or with a sliding partial cover.

Wheel covers: Contact any company that makes plastic hubcaps and ask if they would make full, flat ones for you. You'd have to order at least 100-500 to make it worth while, in each size from 13" to 16". Estimated cost: 10-30€ for a set of 4.
I once sent a few e-mails, but noone answered:( If you have more luck, then I'll be the first to order them from you:)

For alloy wheels you may try to attach them to the screws instead of the rims, like the mini-caps on Skoda Felicia wheels.

I haven't thought of anything good for your name, but would like to echo some things euromodder said about your business plan.
You need to identify what your target customer is driving. It would be good to go with a very popular car first. It would also be good to pick one that has a lot of room for improvements, so your product can easily make a very noticeable differences in mileage.
It also may be good to ignore that and go for a nitch market for a lesser known car. One that are mostly driven by people who think about MPG's more than the average person. I live in the states, so I don't know what to suggest, but here I would recommend ether a honda civic (popular) or toyota pris (nitch).

The only way I think [for now] a cover over an existing alloy wheel might work is if you tap the back end of the nuts that hold the wheel in place [with an M6 hole or so], but there are so many different alloy wheel designs that you'd battle to make this work for all...

I wouldn't build a business plan on the hopes that people will start drilling their alloy wheels or wheelnuts. ;)

Relatively few people go about modifying their cars.
Even fewer modify their cars for better fuel consumption.


I do think Vekke's plan can work if the parts are easy to fit ; if fitting them is reversible without damage; if they're effective at reducing fuel consumption (that is: the proven mods on the ecomodder list); and if they're cheap enough not to scare people away from the initial investment.

I know, that's why I expressed the inherent difficulty in this particular mod (perhaps insufficiently) especially because of the variety of factors you need to design around. He'd have to supply these nuts tapped already with a kit like this - if it's EVER attempted. I can however see some of the more hardcore ecomodders on this site buying lugnuts like this to fit their aero plastic wheelcovers if it was the only way they could get around the problem though :)
- not the type of thing you'd attempt for your first product.

:)
Some folks on this forum will indeed go to extremes to achieve their goal and push the limits.
We all need them to get anything going though.
Apple once called them the round pegs in a square hole, and that's indeed what they are.


But Vekke needs to sell his stuff to the general public if he ever wants to make a profit and a sustainable business, so it'd be a mistake to use the people on this forum as a reference for what the public might be willing to do regarding modding their cars .

Big thanks to euromodder, for the name suggestion. I think I have now already the name for the firm chosen. xxxxxxxxxxxx design and development. Beginning of that sentece will be revealed after I have that site taken for me. Your help will be rewarded with special price wheel skirt set for V50 ;). When I will have those ready.

Volvo will be witin the first cars to get wheelskirt other cars will be:
Prius, Toyota corolla and VW golf also very popular taxi MB E-class. As said the popular models will be ones to do first but also some of the economic models because the buyers have chosen the car mostly for that reason so if they can improve it even more they will do it more easily.

I think the VW lupos 3L could be my firms trademark. So I would byu myself of those from europe and if someone wants to get the most economical available. It would be Lupo 3L modded to the bone. I dont have to sell many of these but if those would have some special touches like west coast customs cars they would be noticed on the traffic and thats free adverticing.

Also I plan to do my own chromed 3D sticker for the back of car which will be included to the ecomodding kit ;).

Anyway continue commenting all the feedback is welcome.

Yes the parts need to be looking like that my wife accepts them :D, then most of them will be acceptable.

My firm (I) will also offer 3D cad engineering services for companies so ecomodding is not the only business.

Oh and by the way I have also one very promising idea conserning those aluminium wheels ;). Need to make some prototypes to test it in action. That will be difficult to do in DIY spirit, but should still be quite cheap.

Also more expensive professional solution will follow as a kit.

I look forward to seeing your work :)

Now its possible to reveal the company name.

Index of /

TUNEKO design and development Oy (Inc)

Slogan at the moment Less drag ---> better fuel economy

Web pages will be tried to get open to selected viewers within the next week. So if you interested to give evaluations of pages be send me a PM. At least I think it is possible to make pages with some kind of password?

I dont have much of experience of web page manufacturing so if someone is a Guru and wants to help also send PM.

:)

Hi Vekke,

Nice to see you going for this thing full-on! Having a website up already is really good. I am impressed.

First layouts for my business cards can be found:

TUNEKO - Windows Live

Which one do you prefer and what would you change?

I like the most of the tuneko versio b 2 side look.

However the card doesnt tell that I am working with cars so that need to be fixed. Any ideas on that are welcome...

For the slogan I need also still new ideas. Engineering, parts & Tips

I have received also following suggestions for the slogans:

How about :
Less drag gets you further
Less drag goes further
Less drag = less fuel

or less drag gives better fuel economy

Suggestions
 

I was going to suggest that one. Short and sweet, balanced; two words on the left, two words on the right and even though you say a lot right there, it still seems to leave a little bit of mystery and might persuade the recipient of this card to investigate further.

As for the business cards: You have a good eye for graphic design and your BCards look good already. It's a tough choice between them. I like option B too, but I think you need to add something in there that shows a car's profile at the very least, like you have in option A. You need that to show people that you're talking about cars.

As for the top 10 Tips; that is also a great idea. People like free stuff and in this case to people not familiar with this site and the concepts behind all facets of hypermiling, this information is perhaps something they didn't have (know). The grammar needs some work :)

"1. Log your fuel consumption" would be a more correct statement.

"4. Inflate your tires +10%"

"5. Avoid carrying unnecessary load in your vehicle"

6 - I'm not sure I get that... perhaps you can say: "Accelerate slowly and smoothly"

Point 3 and 9 kinda falls under the same 'banner'. Maybe: "Anticipate driving conditions to avoid excessive braking" might work better.

These are just my suggestions :)

I take it you're going to offer things for the more popular and therefore bigger target asudience cars

Opel astra / Corsa
Ford Fiesta / focus / modeo
VW lupo / polo / golf
Pug 206/307/308

I think a simple range of grille blocks, larger front airdams replacing the existing ones(using original mounts), wheel discs would be a good starting point, if you have friends in salvage yards you could use the cars there to component sizes.

you could also use the sales data to find the more popular cars to mod and then create more 'extreme' options like kammbacks, belly pans and wheel skirts

Professionally done stuff will no doubt increase the W.A.F!

Cards are not my design :/... Few new cards added.

Top 10 list will be added to website.

Cars will be selected by popularity and owners possible williness to add this kind of parts to their cars.

W.A.F is also something to think about. Pink cars can do wonders to some girls so painting is the key if nothing else works...

6 - I'm not sure I get that... perhaps you can say: "Accelerate slowly and smoothly"

This means rapid accelerations with highest gear possible...

I like the white one with the big T, but it needs to have the company name on that side without overcrowding it.

Black seems out of place given what your company will be doing.
If you want black, use the darker green for green texts - it's far stronger when seen against the blackness than the pale green used for the EKO in TUNEKO and the url.
The lighter green could be used for highlights, as it is used on the big logo.


In image series 5, colours are too pale.
Don't fade away. Be bold !
The airflow over the "missing" car is too subtle to be effective, and the logo gets in the way for people to see the car shape.
If you like this design, lower the logo and URL, and make the windtunnel effect slightly more pronounced.


I wouldn't give away 10 tips.
It takes up a lot of space on your cards.
Grab their attention with 1, then try to draw them to your website for more.

Web site is down?

Websites and slogans with no products and nothing proven are HUGE WAVING RED FLAGS to me; makes me think one is a charlatan. See: The Hoax Car thread, Goofy homemade trike thread, Alcohol Mustang thread, etc. :mad:

I think it's good policy to not use the customers as test subjects.

Just a few ideas,

Less drag = More cash in your wallet
Less drag = More $$$

Not really.
It hasn't been put online yet. ;)

Guys, give Vekke a break, he's only starting up !

As I wrote on previous page website will be open to selected viewers if you are interested send me a PM... And also the pages dont have nothing yet. Maybe on monday I will have something there if computers and programs work etc.

I will start all the paperwork of starting a company on 4.10.2010. I hope I have all the licences etc ready in the end of october. Starting a company is not a piece of cake in EU... Lots of things are still unclear and must be solved, but if you believe in something you can do for sure.

About then the sites will be open everyone, also I should have the first products ready.

BR

Vesa

...two things I'll be interested in are: (1) a 16-inch wheel diameter Matrix-version for my '09 Vibe and (2) an "add-in" variable (open/close) grill airblock kit.