Iacocca Changes His Tune Former Auto Titan Touts Battery-Powered Bicycle

After presiding over the sale of millions of cars and trucks in his legendary career, Lee Iacocca wants America riding bicycles.

“We’d like to put an electric bike in every garage,” he told reporters gathered last week in the Detroit Athletic Club to hear about his latest venture, EV Global Motors Co. of Los Angeles.

The last time he cut a high profile in Detroit, Iacocca was involved in a failed attempt to take over Chrysler Corp. This time he was in town touting the benefit of the environmentally friendly electric vehicles he intends to start selling this fall.

“It’s another piece of mobility in the garage,” he said.

The notion of Iacocca trying to sell bicycles rather than cars is a wonder in Detroit. Years ago, he was a marketing man who helped launch the Ford Mustang, which set the tone for the muscle cars of the 1960s.

After retiring to California a few years ago, he pondered the automotive future, and his idea just might be the vehicle of choice for the children and grandchildren of all those baby boomers who drove Mustangs. He’s put together a prototype 67-pound EV bicycle powered by muscle or, with the turn of a key, an electric motor and lead-acid battery.

Iacocca figures there’s a potential market for 1 million EV bikes a year.

“At some point we’re going to have to face up to greenhouse gases and depending on Iraq for oil,” he said. “The new millennium for young people is going to be an electric world.”