Pedal Pusher Former Yugo Pitchman Now Pedals Electric-Powered Bicycles

Take a former undersecretary of defense, add the man who brought the Yugo to the United States, and this is what you get:

The Electric Bicycle Co.

Malcolm Currie, chairman and chief executive of the Burbank, Calif., company, used to run companies like Hughes Aircraft Co. and Delco Electronics. He also served as an undersecretary of defense in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

“This isn’t what I’d call advanced technology,” Currie said, pointing to one of his bicycles during a debut Thursday in Portland. “I’m used to building missiles and satellites.”

Cheap transportation is nothing new to company President Malcolm Bricklin. He founded Subaru of America in 1968. And, in 1984, he formed Yugo of America - the company that introduced the light-weight Yugoslavian car that some described as a tin can on wheels.

He makes no apologies for the Yugo’s short-lived appearance, and he’s honest about its flimsy image.

“All the things they say that aren’t nice are true,” he said with a shrug. “But, for $3,995, it was a damn good car.”

If you drove a Yugo, you felt poor, said Bricklin, a gray-bearded man who likes to use the word “cool” to describe his new product.

“This bike is inexpensive, too. But you feel rich, you feel smart.”

The electric bicycle, known as the EV Warrior, looks like a souped up version of your average bike. A rider can power it with pedals or with a 12-volt electric motor, activated with a thumb switch on the bike’s handle bars. The battery must be charged after about 30 miles of riding, though future batteries will last as long as 60 miles.

Having sunk $3 million to $4 million into the company - a small amount when compared with cars - Currie and Bricklin chose Portland and San Diego, Calif., as the guinea-pig markets for the electric bike.

The company has built about 200 bikes and is in the process of assembling another thousand for distribution in November and December. Currie said they expect to build another 5,000 in the first quarter of 1996.

They’ll sell for $900 to $1,500 at car dealerships.

Currie and Bricklin, who met in 1992, said they consulted just about every heavy hitter in the electric car industry and then threw in the work of designers who have worked for such companies as BMW.

They call the EV Warrior their equivalent of the Model T.

Versions to come look something more like Henry Ford meets George Jetson with a higher-powered battery and an entire frame made from a continuous piece of molded plastic.

Currie and Bricklin see the bike as a way to introduce Americans to the concept of electric propulsion - first bikes, then cars.

For Bricklin, it’s a matter of having more control, and less at stake, than he did in the car business.

“You make billions, you lose billions,” he said. “It doesn’t take billions to build bicycles.”