The future of automotive is electric. There’s no doubt about that. When some of the largest car manufacturers worldwide announce their plans to fully transition their vehicle production to electric and hybrid in the next 10 to 20 years, it sends a clear message to the markets: the race to electric transportation is on.
In parallel, the pressure on cities to host increasing higher populations, while battling the effects of climate change and pollution has led to a search for shared urban mobility solutions. From electric buses to mobility-as-a-service models such as e-scooter rentals, these solutions could decongest traffic and keep the air clean.
Finally, a transition of our transportation systems to e-mobility wouldn’t be possible without having the right infrastructure in place, starting with charging points and stations.
Innovation and startups are key to propelling this future. Looking at Southeast Europe, The Recursive mapped the key players in the electric transportation market.
Electric vehicle manufacturers
Name: Dacia
Headquarters: Mioveni, Arges, Romania
CEO: Denis Le Vot
What they do: Dacia is a brand within the Renault Group. The Romanian car manufacturer was founded in 1966, and became one of the key local players. It counts over 7.5 million customers across Europe and the Mediterranean region. In 2021, Dacia brought to market the most affordable electric car in Europe, Dacia Spring. A new model is set to replace Spring starting with 2024.
Name: ATP Trucks Automobile
Headquarters: Baia Mare, Romania
Founders: Mircea Cirț, Adriana Cirț
What they do: ATP Trucks Automobile is a Romanian manufacturer that assembles Truston concrete mixers and dump trucks and the ATP Bus electric bus, the first 100% electric bus in Romania. The e-UpCity bus has an autonomy of up to 360 kilometers and a capacity between 80-95 seats.
Name: Rimac Automobili
Headquarters: Sveta Nedelja, Croatia
Founder: Mate Rimac
What they do: The company was founded in 2009, growing from a garage project into a globally recognized technology leader. Now part of Bugatti Rimac, it’s a leading electric hypercar brand that designs and produces next level performance cars. Most recently, the company raised a €500 million Series D round, led by SoftBank and Goldman Sachs
Name: Kinetik Automotive
Headquarters: Varna, Bulgaria
Co-founder & CEO: Teodosy Teodosiev
What they do: Kinetik is a manufacturer of limited custom-designed electric vehicles, including two-seat sports cars and go-karts. The company uses 3D printing and parametric modeling. After an accident burned the company’s headquarters in the beginning of 2021, the company started a crowdfunding campaign.
Name: Econic One
Headquarters: Varna, Bulgaria
Founders: Galin Bonev
What they do: The e-mobility company formerly known as Eljoy specializes in designing and producing smart electric bicycles for urban mobility. They combine proprietary hardware and software, and have a smart-bike application for consumers and a fleet management software platform for business customers. The company recently raised a €6M round from VC funds.
Name: Give Engineering
Headquarters: Athens, Greece
Founder: Elias Nassiopoulos
What they do: Give Engineering produces an innovative electric scooter with three swappable lithium batteries and a driving range of 112 miles. It can go at a speed between 15 and 31 mph. The company was founded in 2016 by four people with engineering experience at Force India Formula 1 team and the European Nissan Research and Development Centre.
Name: Greyp Bikes
Headquarters: Sveta Nedelja, Croatia
CEO: Kresimir Hlede
What they do: Greyp Bikes is designing, engineering and producing high-end electric bicycles, blending AI, data gathering and augmented reality. They started in 2013 as testing the intersection between mobility and technology, and are now present in over 40 countries and on all continents. Porsche recently acquired a majority stake in the Croatian company.
E-mobility services rental companies
Name: SPARK Technologies
Headquarters: Vilnius, Lithuania, with offices in Bulgaria and Romania
CFO: Stefan Spassov
What they do: SPARK is an electric car-sharing company, with a platform consisting of a 1,500-car fleet that can be accessed via the mobile app across Bucharest, Sofia, Plovdiv, and Vilnius. The company currently has more than 250,000 users. At the beginning of the year, SPARK concluded a €30M capital commitment from an alternative investment group.
Name: Autonom
Headquarters: Bucharest, Romania
Co-founders: Dan Stefan, Marius Stefan
What they do: Autonom is the largest car rental company in Romania, with a national coverage of 46 locations in 33 cities, and a fleet of over 12,000 new cars. Recently, the company raised €15 million from the European Investment Bank to acquire electrical and hybrid vehicles for its fleet.
Name: Hobo
Headquarters: Sofia, Bulgaria
Co-founder: Teodor Rachev
What they do: Hobo is a shared micro-mobility provider of electric scooters in Bulgaria. So far, the startup has received €670K in funding.
Name: Ride Splash
Headquarters: Bucharest, Romania
Founders: Cosmin Doroftei
What they do: Ride Splash is an electric scooter rental service company in Romania. So far, the startup has received €500K in funding, reports Start-up.ro.
Name: Instacar
Headquarters: Athens, Greece
Co-founders: Antonis Zois, Vassilis Damianos, Antonis Samothraki
What they do: Instacar is a leading car subscription service in Greece, offering subscribers access to authorized dealership cars with flexible terms. It was founded in January 2018 and officially launched in September of 2019. So far, the company received $2.2 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
Name: Teleport
Headquarters: Bucharest, Romania
Founders: Grigore Danciu
What they do: Teleport taps into the Romanian electric transportation market with a car rental service. Cars can be picked up or delivered at your doorstep, and returned in Bucharest.
Name: Cyrcl
Headquarters: Sofia, Bulgaria
Executive Director: Enriko Marinov
What they do: Cyrcl is a micro-mobility bike sharing provider based in Sofia. At its launch earlier in 2022, the startup received an investment of €100K from angel investors.
Electric charging infrastructure players
Name: AMPECO
Headquarters: Sofia, Bulgaria
Co-founders: Alexander Alexiev, Orlin Radev
What they do: AMPECO is a software company that offers a white-label and hardware-agnostic management platform for EV charging, as well as white-label EV driver apps.
Name: ELBUL
Headquarters: Bulgaria
Founders: N/A
What they do: ELBUL offers an EV charging package including software, mobile applications, roaming, and chargers. They claim to have more than 100K charging stations available throughout 30 countries in Europe.
Name: LEKTRI.CO
Headquarters: Timisoara, Romania
CEO: Claudiu Suma
What they do: LEKTRI.CO designs, produces, and offers smart EV charging solutions for households and commercial customers. The company was founded in 2017, and now has offices in Italy and Poland, in addition to Romania.
Name: WATTO Stations
Headquarters: Bucharest, Romania
CEO & Founder: Daniel Pintilie
What they do: WATTO Stations is an ultra-fast charging network for private and commercial electric vehicles, present across Central and Eastern Europe. The startup is also backed by Early Game Ventures, a Romanian VC fund.
Name: Renovatio
Headquarters: Bucharest, Romania
Managing Partner: Alex Teodorescu
What they do: Renovatio is an EV charging network in Romania. Currently, they are present through 409 charging points and 281 charging stations, in 174 locations across the country.
This list is not exhaustive. If you think other electric transportation market players should be on the map, drop us an email at [email protected].
