So long, Solo: Electrameccanica pivots from three wheels to four

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With apologies to George Orwell, turns out three wheels bad, four wheels good. That’s the major takeaway from the news that Vancouver, B.C.-based electric-vehicle maker Electrameccanica has recalled all the three-wheeled Solos it has sold since 2019, and has discontinued the model.

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“Having worked diligently since initiating a voluntary recall on February 17, 2023 of our SOLO (G3/G2) to investigate a possible loss of propulsion in 2019, 2021-2023 models, Electrameccanica today announced we would remedy the issue with a buyback,” Electrameccanica CEO Susan E. Doherty said in a statement on the company’s website.

Beyond taking back the 429 Solos affected by the recall, the company announced it will shutter all Solo production and refocus its efforts on an all-new, four-wheeled electric vehicle. This brings to an end a very ambitious journey started in 2015, when Vancouver entrepreneur Jerry Kroll joined forces with long-time boutique sports-car builder Intermeccanica to engineer and build a single-seat three-wheel electric vehicle.

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At the time, Kroll explained the rationale thusly: “Eighty-three per cent of all commuters in North America drive by themselves 60 kilometres or less each day. In Canada, that’s 14 million people. If we sell these cars to just one-tenth of one per cent of those, it’s $280 million a year.”

My first introduction to the Solo project was getting the opportunity to drive the mule, which was based on the three-wheeled Sparrow built by Corbin Industries. A year later, I was the first journalist to drive the Solo prototype.

In 2018, the Solo won the Automotive Innovation Award at CES. Later that year, Electrameccanica listed on the Nasdaq — under the symbol ‘SOLO’ — with an offering price of US$4.25 per unit and a US$10-million public offering. Shares of the company have fallen 68.4 per cent over the past year compared with the 27.7 per cent decline of its industry, according to Yahoo! Finance.

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The inaugural episode of the Plugged In podcast featured Electrameccanica’s CEO

The first generation of Solos was produced in New Westminster, B.C. under the guidance of Intermeccanica’s Henry Reisner, before manufacturing moved to Zongshen, China. That small batch of B.C.-built first-gen vehicles is not subject to the recall.

In 2021, funded by money raised on the Nasdaq, the company announced plans to build Solos in Mesa, Arizona, and shortly after discontinued manufacturing in China, saying it was “not an economically sustainable arrangement.”

It is unclear just how far along Electrameccanica is with regards to that planned four-wheel EV; however, despite the cancellation of the Solo, its 235,000-sq-ft manufacturing facility in Mesa will not be sitting idle, as the company announced earlier this month a partnership with Volcon to assemble that company’s Stag UTV. That’s on top of previously announced assembly work that Electrameccanica will be doing on Volcon’s Grunt EVO and Runt LT.

In addition to manufacturing issues, particularly in China, the Solo was plagued by compliance problems. It never was approved for sale in Canada due to headlight and airbag issues; and in the U.S., with its patchwork of state laws, the Solo was sometimes classified as a motorcycle, requiring drivers to wear a helmet in the enclosed cockpit. Another issue, it must be said, was pricing, as — at the $20,000 mark — it was just a few thousand dollars behind the smart EV, which has two seats.