Company Introduction

Hi, I am Chris van den Brink. I am technical director of Carver. Carver started already 20 years
ago with the basic concept idea look at the vehicles on the road, everybody let’s say 80% of
all the vehicles have only one person sitting in the vehicle.

Which is suitable of driving around five people. There was our basic idea that there should be
a vehicle which is specifically suitable for one or one-plus-one persons. Same as if you are in
your kitchen, you have to bake only one egg, you take a small pan. And if you've got a whole
family dinner, you take a big pan. In the car we always take the 'big pan' and drive around,
only if you bake a 'small egg in a big pan.' No!

So, we - that was our basic philosophy of Carver. So we said we want to make the 'small pans'
in the vehicles. Then we came up, 'okay, it would be better to have a vehicle which is narrow.'
Because you got less aerodynamical drag, so not like Smart in which you sit where you side-
by-side, no, behind each other. And then we faced the problem, if you make a vehicle that
narrow, you fall off. Our basic first prototype which we made was a motorbike, enclosed
motorbike - and that's... but the problem in a motorbike is that at low speeds, you have to put
your feet on the ground.

So, we thought, 'ok, we just solve that with side wheels that came down.' We did a lot of test
driving with it, but it was very difficult to drive, first of all you don’t... you must not forget
those wheels, it's a long story but you cannot make it automatic because you don’t know what
the driver wants to do. And second, we've noticed that if you are sitting like a car, with a steer
like a car and the comfort of a car, it's very difficult, especially when you've got a high centre
of gravity, to drive it like a motorbike.

So, we had a lot of crashes with that vehicle and also with sidewheels. And then Harry Kroonen
and I we came up with an invention that we should make this automatically tilt. We are here
at the Carver R&D; center. Our production facility is in the north of Holland, here in south of
Holland, we do all the developments. I'm very proud to say that we do almost all the
development ourselves, even our circuit board. For instance, this is our BMS, Battery
Management System circuit board which we have developed from scratch ourselves. And we
are even capable of making the first prototypes ourselves in house, test it, modify, test it,
modify and when it's then finished as it is now. Then, we ship it to a manufacturer and say:
'Hey, this is what we want, we already tested it. Give us a good price and we want to directly
then order large volumes.' Instead we are still flexible to choose any manufacturer we actually
want. We have done that with our BMS. We have done it with our motor controllers, we have
done it even with our motors, which our motor we developed... partly ourselves in which we
- the mechanical things we did ourselves and use an already existing wire magnet pattern
which is already used in a motorbike, which a motorbike has got two shafts and we wanted
to have a motor with one shaft because we have no connection here.

So yes, at this site, we also do all our CAB warnings. So, if you are passionate about electric
vehicles, I would always advise just do it, don’t be afraid of electric vehicles, it’s not that
difficult, not that complicated. Let’s say in combination, some parts are very complicated like
a BMS or like m-bus or whatever, but basically it is quite simple, you got an electric cell, you
got two motors, a motor control between it and that’s it.

But a lot of software involved in having all the electric devicing talking to each other, and that
is still a very ...challenge for you as learners and students. And I think it’s a very - for you all ...a
very - challenging thing which definitely is the future. So keep continuing!