A Flock of Sparrows to Ease Urban Congestion
by Anne Garcia
Revitalized Corbin Motors realizing founder's dream
Mike Corbin was reluctantly thinking about selling his Hollister, Calif.-based
motorcycle parts company, Corbin Motors, and retiring, when his son Tom stepped in
to help his father fulfill a
lifelong dream.
Tom Corbin recalls his father
being unhappy about retiring
and bemoaning that "My life-
long dream is to have built an
electric car, but I need some
help." Tom jumped right in,
telling his dad, "Well, if you're
going to do the car, I'll team
up with you." And thus the
decision was made, in August
1995, to design and build the
three-wheeled, single-
passenger electric vehicle (EV) known as the Sparrow Personal Transit Module.
Because it is federally classified as a motorcycle, the Sparrow carries motorcycle
plates, is permitted to travel in carpool lanes and fits into motorcycle parking spaces.
Powered by 13 12-volt batteries, the futuristic Sparrow can travel between 30 and
60 miles at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. A head turner wherever it goes, the
bubble shaped, one-person commuter is a breath of fresh air on overly congested
urban freeways.
"It's the most exciting thing we've ever been involved with, and we're really happy to
be doing our share to make a contribution to the environment," Tom says. While his
father is the inventor/designer of the Sparrow, Tom describes himself as the
business guy/promoter. "Every product needs an inventor and an evangelist, and I'm
the evangelist," he says.
You have to feel it
As the self-described visionary of the company, Tom has taken on the role of
president and CEO, in charge of the EV line for Corbin Motors. "It takes a
tremendous amount of energy to bring something new to the market and inform
people about it. If you're going to be talking about it, you actually have to see it
yourself, and more importantly, you have to feel it," he says. "It has to sort of swell
up out of you and become your passion. It consumes you, and you know this is
something you must be doing."
A "fabulous business pursuit" is one that is making such a significant contribution to
the world it inspires you to dedicate your life to it, he adds.
Managing a dream can be challenging work, but according to Tom, there is a lot of
teamwork at Corbin Motors—partly the result of a flat management structure. "There
are just a couple of key people that work with me, and then everyone else works
with them." He notes that because this endeavor is new and requires so much
energy and creativity, everyone works together and supports one another.
"Because of the fluidness of the business, it's not as structured as a typical business
might be," he says. "It isn't like you work on an assembly line putting bolts together.
Instead, you can be doing one thing one day and then another thing another day.
Because of that fluidness, you have to be a person who is really excited about being
here."
Corbin believes that the 35 employees working on the Sparrow feel and see the
dream—they are, in fact, actively participating in it. During a recent motorcycle rally,
Corbin took advantage of the 50,000 attendees and had employees giving test
drives. "We also do what I call 'Sparrow Attacks.' I put four people in cars and have
them zip downtown to wave and honk—everyone who sees them claps, and the
Sparrows get standing ovations at street corners. That really inspires the people who
are building them—they know that there is something really incredible happening."
Corbin asserts that new ideas in transportation represent an interesting shift in
thinking, much like the one that took place in the '80s with personal computers. "No
one believed we would all have PCs in our homes," he says. Corbin believes that
within 20 years everyone who needs to travel as an individual in the urban
environment will have a one-person car. "Whether it is a Sparrow or some
aggregation of brands, there will probably be a whole bunch of companies making
them."
Nontraditional financing
Corbin Motors was initially caught off guard by the demand for the Sparrow, and
Corbin says the company's main problem is that it feels like it is the only one that
knows the demand is out there. Trying to convince larger investment banking firms
or big financial investors of the viability of the project is difficult, he says, because
they don't understand it. "The biggest challenge we've had is financing the company
via nontraditional routes, because the traditional financing structure is not able to
see the vision this early on," he says.
The company has invested $7 million of personal family and company money in the
vehicle and in the last 24 months has raised $9 million by selling preferred stock.
"We sell stock to private, accredited investors. Our minimum investment is $10,000,
and so far, 375 people have become investors." Corbin says the company is raising
money every week. "You always need money to grow, and we want friendly money—
money that will allow us to grow the company and follow the dream, not money that
is quarter-by-quarter restrictive."
And as the Sparrows go humming down the highway, Corbin and his teammates are
working more magic with a new model due out in early 2002—the Merlin, a single-
seat commuter vehicle featuring distinctive hot-rod styling and a proprietary V-twin
gas engine that will use much less fuel and create less pollution than a traditional
automobile.
For more information, contact: 831.635.1033, www.corbinmotors.com.