EVs complicate Musk-Ukraine loss of affection

The Ecofactor electric vehicle recharging company based in Odesa, Ukraine, is well on the way to disrupting the fragmented and inefficient EV industry through innovation, cost efficiency and time to market.

Ecofactor founder and CEO Sergii Velchev traveled to the United States leading a Ukrainian delegation of companies to the annual SelectUSA Investment Summit in Washington DC, the world’s largest foreign direct investment conference. Hosted by US President Joe Biden and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, it was attended by over a dozen US governors.

Velchev said he was attending the SelectUSA to look at launching an Ecofactor manufacturing plant in the United States after having grown Ecofactor out of Ukraine to neighboring markets of Romania, Moldova, Poland, Czechia, Bulgaria and Austria. Ecofactor later expanded its operations to non-EU markets of the United Kingdom, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

In the same way Tesla founder Elon Musk built his start-up from the engineering legacy of the all but defunct UK’s Lotus, Velchev is quietly making Ecofactor into a global competitor based on Ukraine’s high level of engineering, IT development and industrial production.

Ukraine was able to beat back Russia’s invasion by transforming $500 commercial drones into swarms of guided explosive missiles, defeating the world’s second-largest military by brain power and not brawn.

Ecofactor’s factory inside Odesa is a case in point. Velchev needs only 45 employees to compete against larger rivals, with EV car sales, service, production and R&D all under one roof.

Velchev is also the Tesla dealer for the Odesa region but says Elon Musk has been giving neither him nor Ecofactor any love. Tesla has not sold or shipped its