VELLO Bike+
VELLO Bike+
Design: Valentin Vodev
VELLO Bike+ is a lightweight electric folding bike for urban use. A straightforward folding mechanism makes it easy to combine journeys with local public transport, thus facilitating environmentally friendly multimodal mobility. Thanks to intelligent energy recovery by the electric drive, the bike has a long range, despite its small size. Throughout, the design language is clear and reduced. VELLO bikes are manufactured locally in Vienna in compliance with European environmental standards.
Award winner 2019 in the category »Produkt«»This product has everything that jury is looking for in a prize-winning piece of work: It is well designed. It is manufactured locally. It provides its own energy. It has a rechargeable and long-lasting battery that can be easily exchanged by users. It is collapsible and thus space-saving and mobile. Hats off!«
Prof. Anna Berkenbusch
Three questions for co-founder Valentin Vodev
Can you remember the moment when you first had the idea for VELLO Bike+?
It was already clear to me in 2010 that folding bikes are a forward-looking area. The metropolitan areas are growing at a rapid pace: up to 2030, the worldwide urban population will increase by one billion people. This means that by 2030, a total of 60 percent of the world’s population will be living in cities. When I thought about folding bike design, it was not seen as a mass-produced product, although they fulfil all of the functions of a city bike: they are stowable and thus well suited for small and confined spaces, and they can be carried around, which offers protection against theft. Folding bikes are yet to arrive in the cities but are more popular with campers and for covering short distances, which I think is because few designers have applied themselves to this type of bicycle. When I started, the models on the market could be described as folding bikes that were complicated to fold and, moreover, were not great to ride. As a product designer, I devoted myself to this set of challenges and developed the VELLO Bike+. As such, there was no single ‘eureka’ moment – it was a process.
What was your personal highlight in the development process for VELLO Bike+? Was there a low point?
My personal highlight was when I was out and about on the VELLO and a person on the street asked me where I had bought my self-charging folding bike. It was then that I realised we had managed to build a brand. Since then, I have often been asked the same question. The low point is when exactly the opposite happens and someone at a bicycle fair asks what’s so special about our bike.
Where do you see yourself and your project in the next five years?
We want to become a leading company for innovative mobility solutions in the urban space. Due to the increasing proportion of bicycle traffic in our fast-growing population centres, there is enormous growth potential for environmentally friendly mobility products. The successful worldwide sale of VELLO already demonstrates that there are very promising growth markets internationally for our VELLO Bike+. We have been doubling our production every year since market launch, and over the next few years we will continue to bring VELLO and other exciting and innovative products to the market. Ultimately, we want to help make cities more liveable so that in the future our children can move about in the public space – carefree and breathing clean air.