Australia’s chief geek, Simon Hackett, has already made companies like Internode happen. He’s also chairman of one of Australia’s most exciting energy startups, Redflow. And, being a big fan of Tesla, it’s no real surprise that he’s just invested in Sydney-based Tesla chauffeur service Evoke.
Hackett has thrown in for a 10 per cent stake in Evoke at an undisclosed valuation, after meeting Evoke founder Pia Peterson through the Australian Tesla community, which holds regular meetups around the country. It’s enough to spur the company, only in its 17th month of operation, on to expand from its existing fleet of five Model S sedans — with three Model X SUVs planned for delivery by mid-2017.
Evoke’s all-electric fleet of Teslas means the company has saved more then 45,000 litres of petrol and 110 tons of carbon dioxide in its nearly 350,000km of chauffeur driving so far — a distance that’s almost to the moon. Evoke offers point-to-point travel, airport transfers and weddings service, with a fleet of Model S in Pearl White equipped with in-car Wi-Fi and an iPad for passengers to surf the ‘net or queue up some Spotify tracks. The car even has chargers for your smartphone, tablet, laptop or Apple Watch.
In Sydney, Evoke’s cars either use Tesla’s Superchargers for carbon-offset energy or GreenPower-certified charging. The investment from Hackett means that Evoke is eyeing an expansion from Sydney into Melbourne from next year. [Evoke]