STO RY
We had the idea of making something beautiful, different, simple and clean, something to give a new feeling of pleasurable freedom to that handful of kilometres we cover while going from one place to another, as we connect the people and the stories of our lives.
So many times has a story of ideas, born a little by chance, a creative flair, few means and lots of passion, perhaps in a garage, been told. There is something similar in our story too, but our “mood” is very different from what is expected of the new hyper-technological companies of the digital era.
Intuition literally came in the middle of a vineyard. Our headquarters is still located here, in Franciacorta, where meetings are held, and very enjoyable test rides take place. Creative professionals work here, people used to seeing things with the “design thinking” filter, followers of mind maps such as:
“look beyond the possibility of improving what exists and change the rules of the game"
"if you already know what you are looking for, it usually makes little sense to look"
"look at people with empathy and really put them at the centre"
"involve people in a class of their own"
"think with your hands"
"the best ideas come from creative chaos"
"innovation is a good idea performed well"
and so on.
In 2012, a multidisciplinary group was formed around the design thinker table. As a bit of a challenge, a bit of a game (but a very serious game), creative talents of various backgrounds and engineers of the automotive sector, with evidently different skills, found themselves united around one thought:
"we are in the electric mobility and environmental sustainability era and we are in Italy, a country that has been able to produce icons in the motorcycle sector. Shall we make a beautiful Italian electric scooter that is different to everything we've seen so far?"
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If we had thought about it a moment longer, ME would have probably never been created, because when you think about it, it takes a lot of courage. Today, Asian produced scooters still make well over 90% of world production and electric mobility is the order of the day, but it is still a niche clientele, even if the niche is made up of curious people, precursors, trendsetters, capable of anticipating trends.
The courage of pioneers was thus needed and we decided to have that courage.
We certainly did not have the financial resources of the major Asian manufacturers but of our own we had: an automotive engineering firm founded in the 1960s and developed alongside the most important and prestigious car manufacturers in the world, a designer (formerly Compasso d'Oro) with the stylistic “hand” that was needed, who had grown closely with the industry and therefore very attentive also to the executive aspects, and many other people in a class of their own, all with a business, the right skills and one thing in common.
Winemakers would call this factor "genius loci" and in our story it cannot be underestimated, that is: we are from Brescia, born and raised in a land where manufacturing is imprinted in the economic history that spans generations, it is a way of being that we absorb whether we decide to be farmers or designers
From goal to goal, we concluded the start-up phase, we expanded the group, strengthened the corporate structure and built a headquarters, the first nucleus of the "factory" around which our partners, suppliers and customers revolve. Day after day we become more industrial, albeit proudly remaining, the advocates of a niche product, therefore in a sense also artisans, considering that ME is designed to satisfy the desire of its owner to make it unique, customized, tailored to his own style.
We have of course put a lot of passion into our story.
Passion is the catalyst for all the values ​​that have inspired us so far and will guide us in the future: sustainability, simplicity, beauty, creativity, ethics.
We cannot change the world with two wheels, but we can change the way we go along our routes and, why not, on two wheels we can redesign even the map of the things we truly like. For example, crossing the city stress-free with no performance anxiety, ready to rediscover our space-time, aspects we had forgotten or whose fun we believed lost.
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This is our vision of positive mobility.