OUR STORY

Our story begins from the company founder Pentti's youth, when he had hobbies with light vehicles and aviation. Pentti studied at the University of Oulu as a Master of Science in mechanical engineering. After graduating, he gained a solid experience in robotics and automation product development as the chief designer and R&D manager at the first robot factory in Finland. In the background, he continued his hobbies with various light vehicles.

Racing car with monocoque body

Our founder, Pentti, has owned various light vehicles since the 60's. The development of a racing car with monocoque (=a self-supporting plastic body = no metal frame) began in 1962. The building was partially completed in 1965 in Stockholm, continuing in Turku. Finally, the ultra light car saw the daylight on test runs at Artukainen's historic racetrack. At that time, even in Formula 1, no monocoque body was used. The car was two-seater and it could do 160km/h. The structure and steering geometry was found working despite hundreds of skeptics. Anyway, the studies took Pentti to mechanical engineering,  electronics and programming.

Moped and go-kart experiments

It was year 1970 when friend brought to Pentti 1kW engine and old kick scooter. From those and bicycle Pentti and friends build terrain bike in just 6 hours. It could go 15km/h. This is pictured in the photo on the right.

On the second photo is go-kart that was designed and build by Pentti for his children in 1982. There was 1,5kW chainsaw engine and steel tube frame. The go-kart was driven in Ulvila go-kart-track and later in Oulu Iinatti go-kart-track. It could go 60km/h and youngest driver was 2 years old.

From these experiments and the development of robot BLDC-motors the idea of electric powered light vehicle was born. Unfortunately it was not until year 2010 when after a lot of lobbying and changes in EU regulations this kind of vehicles became street legal in Europe and even in Finland.

Project SledGO

Fundamentals

Pintone Oy started to develop a new product line for electric light vehicles in the consumer market for short-haul travel. The first product is SledGO. A new product family has not a direct benchmark or competitor in the world that would meet all new EU directives or national regulations in terms of both structure and use.

The product seeks significant savings, above all for short trip costs. The goal of SledGO was to achieve a payload per weight ratio 20...30 times compared to the normal car. The total cost compared to the car had to be well below 1%.

The product must be particularly suited to challenging conditions throughout the year in all weather conditions like rain, hot and freezing.

Targeting is on commuting, school trips and family travel, without forgetting recreational use.

Implementation

The pre-design and testing of various electric light vehicles started in 2015. Based on the CAD modeling, we built actual plastic models and molds using proven but also groundbreaking technology in our new R&D laboratory.

The project proceeded so that a test run on the first sketch prototype was done just over one month after the project started! Then we put SledGo to hard tests, for example in winter (up to -25C) and unpaved bicycle paths. At the same time, driving geometry, cold protection, various motors and batteries were tested.

The product includes a number of new innovations for which extensive IP protection was applied. In particular, the economy and handling of the product have been extremely successful. Our tester team has been very comprehensive and versatile. Many of them has said that SledGO is addictively fun to drive.