Charging Stack Podcast: Trinova and the Tilting Three-Wheeler Built to Beat Traffic

In this Charging Stack podcast episode, we talk with Markus Scholten, Founder & CEO of Trinova EV, a startup building a fully enclosed electric three-wheeler that leans like a motorcycle and aims to make traffic jams a lot less painful.

After a career spanning BMW, Karmann, and Fisker, Markus started Trinova off a simple frustration: a brutal Los Angeles commute that turned a normal drive into a multi-hour crawl. His answer is a compact, high-performance commuter built for real-world congestion. Narrow enough to target lane-splitting where legal, stable enough to feel like a “safer motorcycle,” and ambitious enough to aim at 0–60 mph in ~3.5s (and potentially faster) with the next electric drivetrain.

This episode is for you if:

• You care about small-format EVs, three-wheelers, and “in-between” vehicle categories
• You live in a traffic-heavy city and want alternatives that save time without killing fun
• You’re building (or investing in) a hardware startup and want the real story behind it
• You want to understand why tilting vehicles keep showing up, and why most fail to scale

In this episode, you’ll learn:

⚡ How a California traffic jam sparked Trinova
⚡ Why Markus chose three wheels (and why it matters for regulation and market entry)
⚡ What a tilting system changes for stability, confidence, and cornering feel
⚡ How Trinova targets ex-motorcyclists who still want the thrill, with less risk
⚡ What Trinova needs to reach production, and the funding + testing plan behind it
⚡ The go-to-market approach: direct sales, motorsport dealerships, and long-term licensing

Topics covered include

• From GM’s “Lean Machine” inspiration to an RC model built to prove the tilting concept
• The moment LA congestion turned the idea from “interesting” into “necessary”
• Why the market wasn’t ready earlier, and what changed once EV acceptance grew
• A fully enclosed three-wheeler designed to deliver motorcycle-like leaning with a more stable feel
• Markus’s own elevator pitch struggle, and the real framing: comfort + agility + performance
• Why he avoids “tricycle” as a label, and why category language matters for adoption
• Three wheels as a regulatory shortcut (often treated as “motorcycle” vs “car” requirements)
• The 850–900 mm width target and how it supports lane splitting where legal
• Why Markus benchmarks things like police motorcycle width when setting constraints
• The stated headline: 0–60 mph in ~3.5 seconds, with ambitions to go faster
• The planned electric drivetrain direction (dual motors, high output)
• Why Markus refuses to build something capped at low speeds, even for “urban mobility”
• How Trinova’s balance system reacts to external forces (like side winds)
• Why older tilting three-wheelers struggled on crowned roads and changing surfaces
• The idea that the vehicle should feel intuitive and “natural,” not like you’re fighting it
• What the initial funding enables: certification, homologation, durability testing, climate testing
• Who Markus thinks buys first: ex-motorcyclists who miss riding but won’t accept the risk anymore
• Pricing targets discussed: entry around $18k–$22k, higher-spec version higher
• Go-to-market: direct sales early, then motorsport dealership networks
• Long-term strategy: keep a premium flagship product, license the balance tech globally
• Markus’s dream launch: show the real advantage by riding to a major auto show through peak traffic, arriving in a fraction of the time

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