After a night out with a friend in New York City in 1999, Mike DiGonis bumped into a problem that changed his life. If he has his way, a “new, major American car company” will come from that night.
His friend used a wheelchair.
“Thirteen-thousand cabs in New York City and I can”™t find one to give my friend a ride home,” DiGonis said from the floor of his 30,000-square-foot factory in the Dutchess Business Park on Poughkeepsie Turnpike in the town of Poughkeepsie. “So I loaded him into my vehicle ”“ lifted him like you would a child ”“ and I said, ”˜My friend, tomorrow I am going to build you a vehicle.”™”
His company, Metroking Motors L.L.C., has done just that. After a dozen years of work, research, real-world field trials and crash testing, Metroking is ready for a major push into the carrier-fleet marketplace via a ramp-equipped taxi now in production as a fuel hybrid and in use by an established company, A-1 Transportation Inc. in Poughkeepsie.
“We want to develop new jobs in New York state and create America”™s newest car manufacturing company,” DiGonis said. Â His product: “Purpose-built vehicles, which will not only help people with special needs, but are fuel efficient and benefit the fleet owner by giving him a durable, long-life vehicle. All can be built as hybrid vehicles and this is the way they”™ve been tested.” The vehicles comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
There are 27 patents in the vehicle, DiGonis said.
Metroking dates to 1973 in Queens, building high-performance, high-speed race cars of the sort that compete in the Paris-to-Dakar road race. “We made more than a thousand,” one of which ”“ “Sacred Pleasure” ”“ DiGonis raced at 216.745 mph over five miles on the Bonneville Salt Flats. “Sacred Pleasure” and a couple of look-alike cousins sit in a corner of the factory, which, DiGonis said, has an option to quadruple its current space. The company also refitted buses, postal vehicles, delivery trucks and 110 taxis to run on natural gas. “Our vehicles have gone over 100-million miles on the road in fleet use.”
Metroking”™s business plan is two prong: “First, to improve the performance of the fleet vehicle” DiGonis said. “The second is to mobilize people with special needs.”
The vehicles are based on the Chevrolet and GMC Colorado and Canyon work-truck chassis. GM specifically builds the heavy-duty trucks to facilitate modifications.
In the case of Metroking, the modifications are bumper to bumper: a Gordian knot of wire spills from beneath the dashboard of one vehicle under construction.
Twenty fiberglass pods have arrived from Michigan. Metroking-made steel-cages will give them strength to make the vehicles”™ back ends.
“Now, we”™re ready to approach the big fleets. Let”™s get them out to the people.”
The cost for a completed vehicle will be in “the low $40s.” Target uses include for-hire taxis, nursing homes, ambulettes, special-needs schools and paratransit. The vehicle holds up to five passengers and a wheelchair. It has been approved for use by the state Department of Transportation as an ambulette or livery vehicle.
All construction is commercial-heavy duty, including transmission and steering ”“ a critical point for fleet owners. The vehicles can be run as gas-electric; biofuel-electric or natural gas-electric and possess “idle-stop” technology to reduce idling and emissions in congested areas.
“In excess of 20 vehicles are now being made,” DiGonis said. “We are ready to manufacture and service these vehicles to the tune of hundreds at a time. We would consider anything in excess of a thousand vehicles a great success.” He praised the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), for researching equipment that would have been beyond the capabilities of Metroking. “NYSERDA has great resources within the industry,” he said, citing “state of the art” batteries, ultracapacitors and electronics that Metroking employs.
The first vehicles are already on the road: “In excess of 110,000 miles.”
Citing strength, size ”“ room for the disabled and their companions ”“ and durability, DiGonis is confident there is a market. “When you see a van that has been turned into a transport vehicle in New York City, they typically last only 10 to 12 months. So far, we have our vehicles in service more than 24 months and more than 100,000 miles ”“ not one unscheduled maintenance stop.”
A-1 Transportation of Poughkeepsie has used three Metroking vehicles for two years, “Doing exactly what the vehicles are designed for, using them for taxis and for handicapped transport,” said A-1 President Bill Boyar. “They”™re holding up great. We”™re at about 120,000 miles, possibly more, and some run 24/7. And slowly but surely we”™ve been picking up more handicapped-accessible work.” This is A-1”™s first venture into wheelchair transport and Boyar calls the experience “most positive.”
“The market should be approximately 5,000 units per year,” DiGonis said. “That would require 700 or 800 jobs.” Metroking now employs 81, including six in sales and marketing.
The “heavy duty” nature of the construction is specifically designed to accommodate multiple driving styles “345-350 days per year.”
Chief engineer Gary Oberrieth was an IBM engineer. With Metroking, he is “engineer, technician and assembler.”
The fuse box of a normal vehicle with Metroking has become a fuse block. Pointing to outsized cubes, Oberrieth said, “These are relays and modules and then you have your standard minibus fuses.” Beside a lineup of heating/A.C. units, he said, “The passengers want to control their own temperatures. These work very well.”
The “cabin” is a fiberglass shell made to Metroking”™s specifications. The shells arrive four at a time where a steel cage awaits ”“ in parts. An Oberrieth-designed cage is assembled within the shell for strength.
Referencing the factory space, which possesses an option to expand threefold, DiGonis said, “I was helped directly by Quadrelle Business Services, our landlord in the Poughkeepsie Business Park. They made it possible.”
One would think that such a product would have been around forever. What is the government waiting for? it seems they have an obligation to mobilize the dissabled equally as the everyday folk! Get these cars on the Access-A-Ride programs and perhaps discontinue Access-A-Ride which costs 500+ million a year and replace taxicabs with accessible cars, like the Metroking. Everyone deserves to be mobile.
Go Michael !!!
Good attidute Suzanne, it seems this company has a full tank of gas left and all the right stuff to mobilize people with special needs.
Afterall we all live in a temporarely healthy body.
I want to know I can call one of these cars or better yet make them mandatory so I can hail one down. it makes so much sense.
I’ve seen that side of you – that’s not you leaning over the ramp!
NYC is waisting taxpayer money to reinvent a vehicle that is here. Hybrid and wheelchair accessible, gets better mileage and holds more people and luggage than any other on the road today, wake up the politicians!
I did not hear from any politicians helping out this company and they are talking about creating jobs especially in an area like the Mid Hudson Valley that desparetly needs jobs.
They have 80+ people working in this Metroking company and they would need another 500+ to meet MANUFACTURING demand.
You would think the economic development folks would be knocking on their door.
Much success to this company and their valiant efforts.
It seems that all the talk about creating jobs is a front to get votes.