Probably (and hopefully!) you noticed it somewhere last week: we have rebranded from SPIKE to ELEO! In this blog we’ll give you some background information about the reasons behind this rebranding, as well as provide more insights into the new name and brand itself.
Why a new name?
Maybe the most important question to start with: why did we want to come up with a new name in the first place? Well, although we got quite used to the name ‘SPIKE’, there are a few reasons why we wanted something new. When we started our company in September 2017, our primary focus was not on the battery technology yet. After finishing the STORM project in November 2016, we got several engineering requests for electrification projects, such as the development of the electric Kibo motorcycle. To offer such services, we needed a legal entity and hence a company name. ‘SPIKE’ was something we quickly came up with as it was short and easy to remember, while it sounded good to us. Without further extensive investigation we therefore founded our company using this name and under the SPIKE banner we started working on our first assignments.
However, while working on these projects, we soon recognized the increasing demand for advanced battery systems that are flexible to implement. Therefore, in an early stage we redirected our focus from merely performing engineering services to developing and manufacturing modular battery systems. With this renewed focus, we all soon felt that the name ‘SPIKE’ didn’t accurately reflect our activities anymore. Furthermore, the word Spike is quite a common occurence in various industries and countries and as such did not come in very handy considering our international ambitions. These factors combined eventually convinced us that we wanted to come up with something new.
How we came up with our new name
However, coming up with a new name is most definitely easier said than done. We wanted a name that is short, easily recognizable in both Dutch and English, links to our company and products, and perhaps most importantly: we wanted a name that just feels right to all of us. Throughout 2020 we performed several brainstorm sessions with team members and numerous names passed in review. However, each of those names lacked something or simply didn’t feel right. Finding a new name is an emotional endeavour, but the final decision should also be based on factual arguments. Therefore, around September last year, we got in touch with branding agency Komma in the search for the right name. After a few sessions in which we really dived deep into our values and ambitions, we finally found the name that just felt right: ELEO.
Our new name
We’re really happy with our new name. ELEO is a combination of Electric and Leo. The first refers to our mission to enable the widespread electrification of mobility and machinery, while Leo, Latin for ‘lion’, refers to our Li-ion battery technology, as well as to our Dutch heritage and global ambitions. We think the name ELEO thus perfectly reflects who we are and what we do. And last but certainly not least, we’re also extremely excited about the entire branding around our new name…
Our new branding
A company’s logo and brand identity are most probably equally important as a new name. We wanted something that really stands apart, something unique, something extraordinary, a logo that immediately catches the eye. And we like to believe that we succeeded in that. The logo is part of a larger pattern and thus perfectly embodies the modularity and scalability of our battery systems (see the first image in this blog). Additionally, this hexagon shape also resembles the shape of our BMS printed-circuit boards and therefore nicely refers to our core technology. And finally, this hexagon pattern also originates from the STORM motorcycle swappable batteries that were hexagon-shaped, so the logo also beautifully links to the very first beginning.
Altogether we're super delighted with our new branding and with all these new developments we surely also had to bring our website up to our new standards. We've included much more information about our technology, solutions, production facilility and markets. So if you haven't checked it out yet, make sure you will. We'll be posting much more exciting stuff in the coming period, so also make sure you'll keep checking!
