October 30, 2024 I By Julia Lange
Where are you going Levi?
retrospective
Over the past 2½ years, we have been committed to electric light mobility and have built up a great network of manufacturers, suppliers, institutions and interested parties.
In direct one-on-one discussions, we gave start-ups and founders an overview of the market, helped with targeting and provided an overview of regional funding measures. With high-profile campaigns such as LEV exhibitions in shopping centers (Alexa, Gropius Passagen), at trade fairs (VELO Berlin) and with our mobility parades in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin, we had a lot of fun presenting exciting light vehicles to the public and demonstrating the advantages of electric light mobility.
We have held the flag high for the LEV industry at symposiums, conferences and industry meetings and tried to establish LEV as a separate segment in the mobility scene.
With various initiatives, such as the battery workshops, we have tackled what is probably the most important and, in the future, most decisive part of the LEV industry, namely the development of a battery standard, and with the developed manifesto "Transport transition with electric light mobility" we are now on our way to the Bundestag in order to achieve concrete funding for the LEV industry.
Months of exciting, challenging and happy moments are behind us and we can proudly say: the LEVi Innovation Cluster is a recognized LEV network that many of our EU neighbors envy us for.
Funding ends on December 31, 2024
Ende des Jahres läuft unsere Förderung durch das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz aus und LEVi steht aus unterschiedlichen Gründen an einem Scheideweg.
The tax office does not see LEVi's work as a non-profit matter, but emphasizes that it is an industry association, similar to the VDA, that pursues the economic interests of the industry. -That is certainly correct, except that nobody actually knows the LEV industry it represents and our work is characterized by a lot of public education.
Without recognition as a "non-profit organization," many funding opportunities are lost, meaning that financing would only be possible through membership fees. However, since most LEV developers and manufacturers are small companies that are constantly fighting for survival, we cannot expect to generate the kind of income we need to maintain our current work.
As we have already stated several times, the companies in question also lack an understanding of the industry. A pedelec manufacturer sees itself first and foremost as a pedelec manufacturer and probably feels more like it belongs to the bicycle industry, similar to a light car manufacturer who perhaps sees itself more as part of the automobile industry.
This means that without an understanding of the industry, there is ultimately no industry association that one can represent.
We continue to criticize the low level of participation in the campaigns and services we offer, as well as the lack of willingness to engage with the opportunities arising from association work, such as cooperation and joint developments. This is certainly due to the fact that most LEV manufacturers are understaffed and have little time. Nevertheless, this is a very short-term, inefficient and costly approach. A market ramp-up will not work like this, and we will continue to see many great ideas that then disappear again.
