The electric scooter FACOM EM.A was awarded Industry Janus 2021 thanks to the synergy between Cobrane Design, Blanc Tailleur and FACOM to deliver a mobility solution which should become a standard on industrial sites.
The FACOM EM.A: a codesign
First and foremost, the FACOM EM.A is the story of a collaboration between three entities: Cobrane Design, Blanc Tailleur and FACOM, who shared their expertise and skills to design a professional electric scooter revolutionising the transport of service agents.
Cobrane Design’s founder, Raphaël COLOMBIE, observed that service agents on industrial sites could waste up to 1h per day by travelling from site to site and that carrying heavy loads made their job even more arduous.
The idea of building a service electric scooter took root in Raphaël COLOMBIE’s mind and thus he began to design it in his own garage in Toulouse in 2012. To speed up the design and prototying process of the electric scooter, he raised funds and asked the industrial design agency, Blanc Tailleur, to collaborate with him on this innovation.
Blanc Tailleur was then able to share its expertise to co-design with Cobrane a robust but “no-frills” professional electric scooter to limit the cost price and the investments. All of this while having from the design an ecological approach: the scooter being an electric vehicle, it doesn’t have any toxic gas emission and it is also designed mainly with recyclable materials.
The collaboration between Cobrane Design and Blanc Tailleur thus allowed the co-design and prototyping of the first electric scooter model and was then able to go to the scooter’s manufacturing phase thanks to Blanc Tailleur’s expertise and experience in industrial design.
Sketch of the first version of Cobrane Design’s electric scooter
Once the scooter was manufactured, it was then ready for commercialisation but only countrywide. However this innovation clearly had the potential to become a standard on any industrial site, and not only in France.
This is where the partnership with FACOM comes in to design this professional electric scooter, the FACOM EM.A. The FACOM EM.A was born from a fully French three-party collaboration and has a 100% French production. FACOM gives the electric scooter access to an even wider market and will allow it to sell oversea to equip even more industrial sites and make service agents’ life a bit easier.
How did the FACOM.EMA win over the jury of the Industry Janus 2021?
Above all, the fact that this initiative was born from a real need was a key factor in the awarding of this excellence label. This solution precisely solves the problems met on the field thanks to the in-depth understanding of the service agents’ needs. The FACOM EM.A is a product creating a real use value for the user. Its strong point is its ergonomy: the vehicle enables a significative improvement in the technicians’ productivity all while reducing the arduousness of the tasks they have to perform.
Furthermore, not only did the ecodesign of this scooter allowed it to meet the needs of the service agents but it also did it with a lesser ecological impact.
The FACOM EM.A is:
- Able to transport a load up to 100kg to assist agents – Able to run for 60km, ideal for transportation on a few acres
- 100% electric and thus emits no toxic gaz and is silencious, it is designed to function in a confined space with high noise pollution
- Hyper agile thanks to its patented steering system – Safe for the agent thanks to its puncture-proof tires and a speed restricted to 17km/h
- Easily visible thanks to its lights, it allows a better cohabitation with other vehicles and pedestrians
- Robust and with “no frills” thanks to Blanc Tailleur’s engineering and thereby limiting manufacturing cost and cost price
- CE approved
The coordinated collaboration of the 3 expertises of Cobrane Design, Blanc Tailleur and FACOM allows each of them to contribute their know-how and provide a mobility solution precisely meeting the users’ needs while being ecological and economical. The FACOM EM.A is going to win over many industry players and communities across the world, and the icing on the cake is that its production will mostly be French.