Drive Green is an innovative electric transportation solution for electric bikes and battery swapping station that uses a level 2 charging station powered by solar energy.
Energy Innovation Hub is a platform that combines unique ideas and innovative solutions in the energy sector, aiming to help power Lebanon. Drive Green, founded by Christelle Bou Harb and Emilio El Hajj is currently enrolled in our Energy Innovation Hub, where we offer financial and technical support with partners as well as networking opportunities with industry experts and potential clients.
1.What inspired you to establish Drive Green? How did you come up with the idea?
Back in 2021, we were completing a specialization related to sustainable transportation. By witnessing the fuel crisis that the country was, and is still, going through, we got inspired to come up with a solution. Since the switch to electrical was a worldwide solution, we truly believed that integrating electrical mobility to the Lebanese transportation sector was a must. It took us series of interviews and literature and market research to finalize Drive Green’s concept.
2.What makes Drive Green unique and different from other solutions within the market?
Drive Green is a startup that provides businesses an optimized transportation scheme consisting of the vehicle, its maintenance and energy-on-demand. This is unique considering most of the existing solutions fail to solve the transportation problem from a holistic point of view. In addition to that, compared to our competitors, we provide faster energy, are more affordable, reliable, and environmentally friendly. Finally, we were able to optimize and develop a battery management scheme that provides our customers with energy-on-demand
3.What are the challenges you faced while launching your business and how did you overcome them?
Initially, the idea started by building solar charging stations. The main challenge that we faced was that Lebanon’s electric vehicle market was still emerging. Thanks to the mentorship provided by Nucleus, we decided to dig deeper into the market study and we discovered that the solution at this stage would rather be providing a transportation scheme. We then shifted our idea accordingly.
On another note, we were both engineers and so did not have any business background which was mandatory. It took us a series of capacity building sessions to improve that.
4.In your opinion, what is the key to success? What advice would you give other startups in the industry?
There are three keys to success; passion, connection and knowledge. It’s a bitter sweet journey; without passion, any entrepreneur would give up at the first obstacle. Then, connections are key to start and gain traction. Finally, knowledge is crucial; one should always be eager to learn more and listen to the advice of experts in the field.
5. What should we expect next from Drive Green?
Now that our prototype is done, Drive Green is raising funds. This will help us finance our 6 months testing phase in Lebanon, during which we will be deploying and managing 20 motorcycles.
