ENVO Founder and CEO Ali Kazemkhani shares his insights on modular electric vehicles, manufacturing challenges, and supply chain strategy in a conversation with Sadi Muktadir on Canadian Manufacturing Talks.
Ali Kazemkhani's interest in electric mobility started at seven or eight years old, when he tried to power his bicycle with the motor from his father's broken tape recorder. The wheel spun when the bike was flipped upside down. On the ground, it went nowhere. That early engineering problem stayed with him through a mechanical engineering degree, a master's in automotive engineering, and a patented e-bike conversion kit developed in Iran more than 25 years ago.
When he moved to Vancouver in 2015, the market was finally ready for what he had already built. That one-person business has since grown, without outside investment, into ENVO: a team of more than 30 people, including a core of seven to eight engineers, and a portfolio of around 30 products spanning e-bikes, snow mobility, all-terrain vehicles, and specialty platforms.
ENVO's mission has shifted from enjoyable rides to right-sizing mobility for a healthier community: matching the vehicle to the job, so a 70 kg person does not need a two to three ton vehicle to get around.
The Missing Middle in Mobility
I'm curious if we can get into your supply chain strategy in this current climate. How are you approaching it with regards to components, especially with what's happening south of the border?
I need to explain a little bit about the special situation in our industry, which is not even an industry yet. It's an area in between the bicycle industry and the automotive industry. And there is a gap in between that is not an industry.
Before getting to suppliers, Ali reframed the question. He describes light electric mobility as an area between two established industries rather than an industry of its own. Bicycles, scooters, and cargo bikes sit on one side. Cars and trucks sit on the other. Between them is a gap, and in his view that gap holds more everyday personal and business use cases than either end.
"If you're talking about shoes, you have size two all the way to size 15. But why is there nothing in between bicycles and cars?"
Ali Kazemkhani, ENVOThe reason is structural. A single large vehicle can commute, haul, tow, and inspect, which is what makes it attractive to mass produce. Right-sized vehicles do not work that way. A municipality needs one type of vehicle for parking patrol, another for inspection, another for landscaping. Large automakers have little reason to pursue these smaller, fragmented markets. Startups that try usually follow the automotive model: heavy engineering for one purpose-built vehicle, aimed at volumes the niche cannot support. Many run out of funding before the market catches up.
"The opportunity is there, but the environment, the industry, the investment is not prepared to do that."
Ali Kazemkhani, ENVOWhat the Last Few Years Taught Us
People wanted independent transportation outside of transit and without the cost of a car. E-bike demand surged and many new brands entered North America.
Demand normalized. Many of the new brands exited the market, and several well-funded light EV ventures struggled.
Investor appetite for small and light EV ventures dropped sharply, leaving the demand for right-sized vehicles unmet.
From an ATV to a Platform
I want to ask you about modularity and what you mean by democratization of process. Can you get into that a little bit?
So I'm a mechanical engineer, and my thought process starts from the product itself. In 2023 we launched an electric ATV project... But then when we launched the product, the inquiries that we were receiving were 90% of them non-ATV.
The turning point came in 2023, when ENVO launched an electric ATV. Roughly 90% of the inquiries that followed were not about ATV use at all. An airport police department wanted a vehicle for inspections. Film studios wanted a camera platform for wooded locations. Mining, agriculture, and robotics companies wanted a base to carry their own equipment, including lidar systems for autonomous work.
None of them could buy a commercial vehicle and adapt it to their needs. But every request shared the same building blocks: a battery system, chassis, suspension, steering, braking, and seating. That observation became UPT, ENVO's Universal Platform Technology, developed over four years of engineering, prototyping, and testing.
"Now we can address niche markets without making a niche business."
Ali Kazemkhani, ENVOModularity and Democratization
Ali breaks the UPT approach into two ideas.
Batteries, motors, harnesses, and chassis components are produced at volume. Wheelbase, width, height, seating, battery count, and motor count are then configured for each application. Selling ten units here and two hundred there still adds up to mass production of the core components.
Building vehicles from aluminum extrusion, T-slot framing, CNC parts, and bolted assembly removes the need for welding, stamping, and forming. A local partner can start assembling with a small, trained team in a clean shop instead of a capital-heavy production line.
This changes the economics for specialized buyers. A purpose-built vehicle for a single application can cost several times more than a configuration assembled from standard, mass-produced modules. It also means ENVO does not need to know what every operator in São Paulo or Mexico requires. ENVO supplies the platform and the engineering; local builders adapt it to their market.
"What if you can just make it from our Lego blocks? It's a purely customized and tailored solution for your mobility need, but through elements that are mass produced."
Ali Kazemkhani, ENVORethinking Where Value Is Created
Tariffs, duties, and anti-dumping rules shaped much of this thinking. Because UPT parts are machined and assembled rather than welded and stamped, they can be produced in different regions and shipped as components rather than finished vehicles. ENVO currently sources parts from Vancouver, China, and India, and is shifting some production toward India for cost reasons.
Where are the parts manufactured?
The parts can be manufactured anywhere because they are CNC. Currently, part of them are manufactured in China, part of them in Canada, in Vancouver, part of them in India... It's just a technical solution. I'm not a policymaker, I'm not influencing politicians, but I'm an engineer. I can rethink ways to make everyone happy.
Ali is direct about what is realistic to localize today. CNC machining uses the same equipment worldwide, and Canada has clean, affordable hydroelectric power. Powder coating is widely available in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. Assembly is straightforward. Hydroforming of bicycle frames is the exception: the equipment requires millions of dollars per module, which current North American volumes do not justify.
You said the frame of the bike right now is from China and Taiwan. What needs to happen in order for that frame to be made in Canada or the US?
You know the cost of a frame in China is around fifty dollars. What's the cost of an e-bike? Two thousand, three thousand, four thousand. Where is the added value? Design, assembly, battery, controller, motor. So let's put our force into those things.
His conclusion is to invest where the added value is. In a $2,000 to $4,000 e-bike, that means design, battery, controller, motor, assembly, and the intellectual property behind the system, rather than starting with the frame.
So you're saying it's an engineering challenge more than a regulatory or policy challenge?
For now, for us, it's engineering, and the fact that we need to convince the market. Bringing people awareness that there is a new way of making something that you used to buy with one fixed configuration.
For ENVO, the main barrier is not policy or cross-border trade. It is engineering, and proving to the market that a modular vehicle performs as well as or better than a conventional one. If that is demonstrated, the approach opens the market not only for ENVO but for partners and industries that follow.
Why Buying Canadian Matters Here
E-bikes have reached a level of maturity where products from established brands are broadly competitive on range, responsiveness, weight, and noise. The post-pandemic market is crowded, and the remaining suppliers are competing hard for share.
Ali points to what a purchase supports beyond the product itself. ENVO directly employs 30 to 40 people in Canada and supports roughly twice that through local contractors, from marketing to accounting and legal services. Some customers tell ENVO they have paid a little more specifically to support a Canadian business, and ENVO wants to keep earning that choice on engineering merit as well.
Interview excerpts in this article are lightly edited for readability.
Canadian Manufacturing Talks with Sadi Muktadir
"ENVO founder and CEO Ali Kazemkhani joins to talk about UPT, EV manufacturing and supply chain strategy." The full conversation runs about 39 minutes and covers ENVO's origins, the gap between bicycles and cars, the UPT platform, and where manufacturing value is created.
Listen on Canadian ManufacturingBuild the Vehicle Your Work Needs.
UPT is designed, engineered, and supported in Canada. Configure and price a platform for your application.
Configure Your UPT Explore ENVO E-Bikes
Partager:
Right-Sizing Mobility: Ali’s Conversation with Tom Edwards on The Entrepreneurs