Random buddy requests from customers world wide. Messages of assist and congratulations for options or expertise I had nothing to do with. These are the issues I’ve been coping with for the previous few months as individuals flock to my Fb profile. They usually all have one factor in widespread: all of them come from individuals who assume I’m a person named Lawrence Hardge, an govt at an EV startup partnership referred to as Mullen Superior Power Operations.
It truthfully is senseless how individuals assume I’m this man. Go forward and have a look. All one has to do is open their eyes. I imply positive, we’re each Black, put on glasses, and share a primary title. However come on, his final title is six letters and mine is 5! In addition they each begin with H… however that’s beside the purpose. I’m not this man.
Every thing began earlier this 12 months on my in any other case lifeless Fb profile. Now, to be clear, I don’t use Fb like that. For one, I’m a millennial. And aside from connecting with former classmates who I by no means communicate to, I am going on typically to peruse numerous automotive teams. Moreover that, I’m not an lively consumer. So I used to be confused after I began to obtain buddy requests, at a tempo of two to 3 individuals per week typically. As I regarded over them I puzzled how the hell these individuals stored discovering me. I do know I’m on the web due to what I do, however it’s not like I’m a public official or something. And I didn’t acknowledge a single individual. Then the messages began.
They usually made no sense. From messages praising “my” fireplace extinguisher:
To messages saying I used to be going to “overtake” Musk and Tesla. Simply who the hell did these individuals assume I used to be? So I began digging and ended up down a rabbit gap of questionable expertise, attainable vaporware, and outright sketchy stuff.
Lawrence Hardge is an inventor who is understood for developing with one thing referred to as the Knock Out 360 Fireplace Extinguisher, which Client Experiences didn’t approve of. It’s not even listed on the market on Amazon anymore. Apart from that, he’s additionally the founder and CEO of an organization referred to as International EV Know-how. Their declare to fame is one thing referred to as Ever-Cost Know-how. It comes with daring claims: it’s a cellphone-sized gadget that may be hooked up to any EV and improve its battery efficiency. How? Who is aware of. I’ll let International EV Know-how Clarify. Emphasis Mine.
In accordance with testing accomplished by Aspect, our Ever-Cost Know-how will increase typical EVB runtimes by as much as 300+ % and extends the mileage and vary capability of just about any EVB by tons of of miles. Below the suitable situations, the ranges of prime EVs could enhance by near 500 to 700 miles. The Ever-Cost™ Know-how has been examined in a number of EVs in labs and on roadways. It permits EVs to cost totally at lightning speeds at public charging stations in 15-20 minutes or inside 1 hour at house, saving time and power sources. It additionally saves cash by extending battery life. The Ever-Cost™ Know-how reduces the necessity for frequent charging. The Ever-Cost™ Know-how rejuvenates parked & chilly batteries unplugged 100% in 24 hours
Whereas it reads prefer it’s a recreation changer, it’s leaving out some key particulars.
The outcomes of the testing mysteriously disappeared, however I managed to seek out them: buried within the photos on Hardge’s Fb profile are two pages of what’s presupposed to be a 14-page report. When you look intently you’ll see that the primary particulars disregarded of each the outline of the Ever-Cost Know-how and its launch announcement have been that the check was carried out utilizing a GEM E6, a kind of small golf cart like EVs retirees use down in Florida.
It wasn’t carried out on a “prime EV” as the outline mentions. The check was additionally executed with out the drive wheels touching the bottom. Primary science tells us that low rolling resistance and a lighter load on the battery are going to imply a increased vary. However this all simply factors to the testing being purposely offered as deceptive. I reached out to International EV Know-how to see if they may clarify their tech a bit extra and was met with silence.
Nonetheless, this was all sufficient to persuade a Southern California-based EV startup referred to as Mullen Automotive that Hardge was the person for the Senior Vice President of Know-how job at a newly shaped partnership between Mullen and International EV Know-how referred to as Mullen Superior Power Operations.
Wanting into Mullen didn’t make me really feel a lot better about all of this being legit. Based mostly in Brea, California, Mullen was began in 2014 by its founder and CEO David Michery. The corporate has an EV crossover it says is coming referred to as the Mullen 5. They’re additionally claiming 25,000 reservations for this factor.
With a goal beginning value of $55,000, they’re claiming 325 miles of vary, 155 mph prime pace, and a 3.2 second zero to 60 mph time. In case your financial institution doesn’t flag it, you possibly can reserve one now for $100 and see it… sometime, perhaps.
Whereas buyer deliveries have but to occur — primarily as a result of the corporate has but to provide a single one — Mullen lets the 5 come out for sporadic public appearances. The corporate took the 5 on a nine-city tour in the direction of the top of 2022. Earlier than that, its final main occasion was profitable the highest zero emission automobile award on the LA Auto Present. Apart from the 5 crossover, the corporate dabbles in fairly just a few issues that don’t actually appear to exist but.
There’s a supercar EV referred to as the Mullen GT that’s “coming quickly” that they need $1,000 deposits for. The automotive initially began life because the Mullen DragonFly and debuted in 2019. But it surely’s really a rebadge of a sports activities automotive from a Chinese language automaker referred to as Qiantu Motors; they personal Bollinger, the failed EV off-roading startup that’s now a business EV truck division of Mullen after it was bought in 2022. A cab over EV semi of the identical title is supposedly coming in 2024;
There’s the Mullen GO, a small European Metropolis supply automotive that was presupposed to have German deliveries begin on the finish of 2022; there’s additionally a trio of business automobiles dubbed the Mullen One, Three (a rebadged Isuzu N-Collection truck), and Campus. The One and Campus are apparently rebadged business automobiles from an unknown Chinese language producer. That is all along with the tons of of sketchy YouTube movies about investing within the firm’s inventory (which has been beneath a greenback a share since mid-Could) or movies that say every part and nothing on the similar time. Even worse is a harmful report from short-seller Hindenburg Analysis that calls all of this “But One other Quick Speaking EV Hustle.” Mullen didn’t return a request for remark both.
Whether or not or not Hardge and Mullen even have any actual EV or EV tech coming, I’m not part of it and positively wouldn’t need to be, even when somebody paid me. So for these of you on the market which might be Mullen followers bear in mind and assume you’ve discovered me on Fb, I’m not Lawrence Hardge!