Gurgel Motors (2021)

Gurgel Motors Oy (mainly known as Gurgel, stylized GURGEL, pronounced [ɡˈɜːd‍ʒə‍l]) is a Finnish-Brazilian automotive company, founded in 2019 by Kasperi Salovaara and Edward R. Benjamin to plan and manufacture new electric vehicles under the revived brand, which is a famous Brazilian brand. The venture's foundation started after the two found out about each other's passion for cars.

The company is owned by the Brazilian Grupo Iris, with Illustrious' automotive division Illustrious Motor Group as the minor shareholder.

Background
The Gurgel name's association with electric vehicles as far back as 1974, when the original Gurgel released the Itaipu. Despite the battery's weight and low capacity, with the project being halted, it was a pioneer project of an electric vehicle. They unveiled the Itaipu E400 in 1980, this time as a van designed for urban travels with remarkable mileage. A version of it was avaible with a petrol engine as the "G-800". The original Gurgel declared bankruptcy in 1993 and closed the next year.

Kasperi Salovaara and Elon Musk became friends after meeting through their mutual, investor Robert W. Stainton. At first, Salovaara had some insight to what Tesla Motors "did, had, got, gave, all that" and was briefly involved in designing some aspect of Tesla's technology. After what he regarded as a trial, he started blueprinting a potential new electric vehicle, which is where his interest in technical aspects of an electric car really took off.

Musk was less than pleased when he found out, but eventually allowed Salovaara to continue, and the two remained as friends, frequently interacting through Twitter. While Salovaara has regarded Musk as "sometimes a hothead ready to explode, almost like [himself]", confirmed by arguments spawn out of some interactions on the platform, he still affirms that he is "one of the greatest friends [he's] ever had", next to Watson, Benjamin and Glass.

His motivations for expanding his expertise to electric cars came about as of result of that trial at Tesla, as well as a need to make "something practical", regarding a suspension system in his Citroën Xantia and test results regarding its quickness, as well as the need for autopilot, and many features of luxury cars such as ones produced by Rolls-Royce, even going as far as to joke about their new project (Gurgel BR-1) being a "poor man's Rolls-Royce".

Founding and Gurgel BR-1 (2019-present)
In early March 2019, Salovaara and Benjamin (the pair had then-recently co-founded Gearbox Films) met up with Salovaara's friend Martin Glass at a Starbucks in Jackson, Wyoming. Benjamin had, by then, taken an interest in retro revivals, inspired by "an infrequent trend of (such)". When the original idea of a Gurgel revival was proposed by Salovaara (the brand Gurgel was chosen by Benjamin), he thought about simply converting Gurgel's infamous box-like cars into hydraulic hybrid vehicles. However, the two soon realized the "not so aerodynamic-ness" of the original designs, which would prevent them from making cars that would waste the least fuel. They soon incorporated Gurgel Motors Oy on March 11th, which notably happened to have prime numbers in its date.

By January 2021, Salovaara's Vuori merged with his friend Oliver Watson's company Illustrious, which owns the Illustrious Motor Group division for its automotive holdings. Salovaara made a deal to sell the majority of the company to Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Iris. That same month, Gurgel acquired most assets of Ford do Brasil (including their former workers, specifically from the Camacari and Taubate plants; the only asset not included in the deal is the Troller division), expanded its design team by hiring alumni from Citroën, Pininfarina, Italdesign Giugiaro and Polyphony Digital; and also moved their global headquarters from Hyvinkää, to Sanomatalo in Helsinki.

In March 2021, Gurgel opened a research and development center in Tokyo to house its new Japanese employees.

Partnerships
In September 2021, Gurgel and McLaren Group announced a partnership, which would result in Gurgel BR-1's chassis being made out of carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP), through a patent sharing agreement.

Acquisitions
Gurgel's first proper acquisitions happened on March 10, 2021, when they acquired the Monégasque automobile manufacturer Venturi and its subsidiary Voxan, both of which became Gurgel's second research and development center in Monaco. Their team Rokit Venturi Racing was later renamed to Rokit Racing.

The next day, March 11, 2021, they acquired Lightning Cars Company, Rockfort Engineering and Academy of Robotics Ltd. Their teams moved from London, Banbury and Cardiff respectively to their new base in Amsterdam. That day, they also acquired vehicle design and engineering staff from ITK Engineering, with people from Germany, Austria and Spain also moving to the Amsterdam facility.

Also on March 11, 2021, Gurgel acquired Brembo' and Marelli. Marelli Brazil's operations and Brembo's São Paulo plants were merged into Gurgel's São Paulo plant, while the rest of the two companies remains as Gurgel's subsidiaries.

Future
Both Salovaara and Benjamin noted that if Gurgel's first car (Gurgel BR-1) is successful at all, they would consider expanding to making light commercial vehicles, motorcycles and trucks. The former also mentioned that one of their goals is for their car materials to be 100% eco-friendly by 2039.

Board of directors
Co-founders Kasperi Salovaara and Edward R. Benjamin are the Chairman and President of the company respectively. Other people in the board include:


 * Martin Glass, the first investor
 * Kazunori Yamauchi, president of Polyphony Digital
 * Adrian Newey, Formula One engineer
 * Gildo Pallanca Pastor, who joined the board after Gurgel's acquisition of his company Venturi
 * Xiaoyu (Rain) Liang, global marketing strategist at Xiaomi
 * Isaac Davis, co-founder of The Eclipse Group

Investments
Companies that have invested in Gurgel Motors include Sony Interactive Entertainment, General Motors, GV, Virgin and Lotus.

Advertising
Gurgel Motors doesn't have much of a social media presence, outside of Twitter, with their co-founder Salovaara's YouTube channel working as the company's outlet for digital content, such as uploads of adverts, with not much intention to advertise elsewhere. The lowkey presence allows Gurgel to focus more on its R&D, and rely on word-of-mouth advertising as well as, like its rival Tesla, educating customers through its to-be-planned showrooms.

Salovaara's YouTube channel releases around 2-3 ads for Gurgel Motors a year, with interviews and mini-documentaries related to the company. Gurgel's content is created in collaboration with Primav Industries and TBWA.

BR-1 crowdfunding campaign
León Nogueira announced in May 2021 to start a long-term crowdfunding campaign on its site in form of online preorders, with the total goal being 100k preorders of Gurgel BR-1 by Q1 2023, one financial quarter before its planned release. The website will feature the original content produced for Salovaara's YouTube channel, as well as a blog of the development process, and a customization page for the preorder process.

Gurgel Expeditions
After acquiring Venturi, Gurgel rebranded its Venturi Global Challenges project as Gurgel Expeditions. In the "Expeditions" (formerly known as "missions"), Gurgel tests the technologies it develops in extraordinary conditions: excessive speeds, extreme weather conditions, difficult terrain in the most remote regions of the planet. Salovaara, Nogueira and Pastor discussed the importance of the Expeditions and their contribution for better safety in future Gurgel vehicles in a video posted on the former's YouTube channel.

Worldwide presence and manufacturing
They have dual headquarters in Helsinki (regarded as their global headquarters) and São Paulo (which also serves as their factory), as well as research and development centers in Monaco, Tokyo and Amsterdam. Their initial decision to found their main factory in São Paulo was due to the need to preserve Gurgel as a Brazilian brand.

Gurgel's initial plans include an initiative to take manufacturing of components and technology in-house, decreasing the costs and amount of outsourcing needed.

Gurgel Special Projects
On September 16, 2021, Gurgel Motors launched Gurgel Special Projects, an in-house personalization service and prototype production unit, specializing in building various types of electric vehicles, as well as innovative R&D in collaboration with research universities such as Harvard University and University of Modena.

China
China Gurgel Motos Corporation is a 50/50 joint stock partnership with the Chinese government (through state-owned companies BAIC Motor, SAIC Motor, FAW Group, Dongfeng Motors and Changan Automobile) to distribute Gurgel's cars in China, as well as manufacture additional cars under the Gurgel brand.

Logo
The logo was designed by the founders Salovaara and Benjamin, as a modernization of the original Gurgel logo, with an expansion on the branding created by the Salovaara Watson agency. Unlike other automobile brands at the time, the logo wasn't originally meant to be displayed as a flat design, which was chosen by Benjamin as a way to imply the luxurious and detailed nature of the vehicles to be produced by the company.

The logo initially received minor backlash from Brazilian people, as it barely reminded of the old Gurgel. The negative side of the backlash also addressed Salovaara's use of nostalgia and not much else, but he later addressed that Gurgel's brand was to redefine what the name means in concept, that being a brand that was always "progressive and down-to-earth".

Sponsorships
In March 2021, Gurgel Motors announced that it had become one of the main partners of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and the upcoming revival of the Goodwill Games. They're also rumored to acquire naming rights to Carioca Arenas 1, 2 and 3.

Motorsport
Gurgel Racing is the racing division of Gurgel Motors and the racing team that will compete in Formula E, which is organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). They will debut in the Formula E 2022 season, the first season in the championship's Gen3 era.

History
An idea for a Formula E team supplied and managed by Gurgel came about during a Christmas dinner between Salovaara, Elon Musk, Iris founder León Nogueira and the Eclipse Group co-founder Isaac Davis, where an agreement on Iris' acquisition of Gurgel also took place. Musk agreed to supply Tesla's battery technology for the team's first season, while Davis and Nogueira agreed to look for sponsors and team members.

Their first hires include Lucas di Grassi and Maximilian Günther.

On March 9, 2021, Gurgel Racing was revealed, with its first sponsors being Fox Sports Asia, Epic Games, Mubadala and Facebook Inc.

Gurgel BR-1
The newly-revived Gurgel's first project is Gurgel BR-1, which is expected to be released by Q2 2023. The MSRP is rumored to be around USD$18,000, which, while received positive feedback, had some predict it being sold at a loss.

Development
In order to start work on their first car since the foundation, Gurgel BR-1, they managed to acquire some patents, including the Activa suspension system (electronically controlled hydropneumatic suspension combined with an active anti-roll bar) as well as did R&D work for graphite and fiber-metal laminates. They intend on sticking with a rounded version of the famous Gurgel BR-800 car design, though will tweak it slightly based on aerodynamics research.