General Motors revealed on Friday its electrified bicycles, or eBikes, but one important facet remains undeclared: they don’t have a brand.
GM wants the community to name its latest product line and announced the eBike Brand Challenge begins today. The automaker unveiled two separate eBikes: one folding model and a compact model. The automaker didn’t, however, specify either bikes’ specifications. It’s unclear what kind of electric motor assists the two models or what service they will integrate with.
However, Hannah Parish, director of General Motors Urban Mobility Solutions, said, “We blended electrification engineering know-how, design talents and automotive-grade testing with great minds from the bike industry to create our eBikes. Now we want to expand our thinking beyond the company walls and hear from people who like to move and have rad ideas.”
The challenge will award the winning submission a $10,000 prize, while nine other runner-ups will receive $1,000 in prize money for their name submissions.
The challenge will run through November 26 and GM offered a few guiding principles for those prepared to submit suggestions. The brand name should be “simple, smart and bold” and center around fun ideas that a global audience will understand. Winners will be announced in early 2019.
We’ve heard about GM’s plans for an eBike service since 2016. Two years ago, GM filed a Maven trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for bicycles and electric bicycles, motorized bicycles, and structural parts thereof. Last year, GM followed up the original trademark with two new ones for “Maven Merge” and “Merge.”
This past June, a trademark for “Maven Verity” surfaced. It’s unclear if any of these names pertain to the eBike service, but it’s a safe bet the brandless eBikes will be part of Maven in some form.
Comments
Where do you send name ideas to? Surely you don’t just announce it online and expect to get paid if your name is used.
Yes Sean, where do we send submissions?
The website is now up and running. It wasn’t when the story initially published.
Head to https://www.ebikebrandchallenge.com/call-for-entries to go through the submission process.
Thanks for reading,
-Sean
VEGA!-Better than walking!
Hey guys, you can find the submission site here: https://ebikebrandchallenge.com/call-for-entries
Let’s here some names!
Some quick ones off the top:
WindWalker
SkyPedal
Electricks
DashPedal
that tiny seat will double as a suppository applicator.
Remove the seat but leave the post and really have some fun… Lol
I would like to comment on this bike like the typical GMAuthority Mouth Breather if I may……
Ahem….
“This is the worst bike in the world(has not ridden this bike or any bike in 30 years) and I can tell that this is totally inferior to the Audi, Lexus, Maybach, Bentley etc etc etc bikes, why doesn’t this bike have wheels made from Platinum with rhodium spokes? The prices is both too expensive and too cheap at the same time and its both too old fashioned and too techy for me, I’ve bought GM bikes all my life, but this is the last for me(GM has never made bikes) and the name is too confusing, it has a letter and a number? What am I? Stephen Hawking? and I gotta pedal the thing??? GM is going bankrupt on Tuesday…..mark my words”
Now let me tell you again about that time my CUE broke……
Bikey McBike Face!!
Too bad GM doesn’t spend their resources on cars and trucks instead of gimmicks like this…
Here’s what Billy Durant said when they came to Durant-Dort with a proposal to buy Buick:
“Why doesn’t D-D spend their resources on horse-carts instead of gimmicks like this loud smoky engine thingy.”
Nope, actually Durant didn’t say that.
Meanwhile: Speacialized Turbo, Stealth H52 (5200W), Hi-Powered Cycles Revolution, Haibike Flyon, etc etc. these are ebikes that will blow your Bolt ito the weeds.
Were all the existing bike designs considered too ridiculous? Facepalm
Nope, existing ebike designs were considered “too profitable to companies who aren’t GM”
Right now, Haibike is the fastest growing mobility company on earth. Just like Tesla made Porsche wake up, so Haibike and Specialized are making GM wake up. Every “car” company is making ebikes now.
This is absurd.