Jun 17, 2026 · 23 min
JoeCohen
Co-founder of Infinite Machine, the New York maker of the P1 and Olto electric vehicles
Infinite Machine HQ Tour: EV vehicles backed by a16z American Dynamism
In this episode
We’re inside @Infinite_Machine New York headquarters, and Joe is showing me exactly how they went from nights-and-weekends garage project to shipping thousands of electric vehicles. The facility is doing something unusual: everything—design, engineering, prototyping, manufacturing, warehouse, showroom, office—is in one place.
- P1 vs. Olto: two vehicles, two completely different design philosophies
- How they leverage software to meet regulatory requirements
- Design language: why these vehicles read as “New York”
- Manufacturing at scale: working with 300 component suppliers
- Security features that actually work (they’ve never had a theft)
- The prototyping-to-production pipeline
- Why headquartering in New York matters to their design
About the guest
Joe Cohen
Co-founder of Infinite Machine, the New York maker of the P1 and Olto electric vehicles
Full transcript
JoeWe have two vehicles. We've got P1, which is our first product, which is a 65-mph street-legal, license-plated vehicle. It's got tons of bells and whistles. Got CarPlay.
LubaPretty.
JoeThank you. Yeah, it's an amazing vehicle. It's obviously fully electric, removable battery, 6,000 W motor. So, it's really, we pulled no punches on this one. It really is kind of, it's a really capable machine. And—
LubaAnd for this one, you can ride up to 30 mph without a motorcycle license. And then if you have one, it's 60 mph.
JoeExactly.
LubaSo, how did you guys get permissions for being able to ride this without a motorcycle license?
JoeSo, just the law is that if a vehicle can go up to 30, it's considered a moped, not a motorcycle. And so, we are able to do that with software and regulate it. It used to be that it was by engine size. So, for example, if the engine size is smaller than 50 cubic centimeters, CCs, then it would be a moped, and if it was larger, then it would be a motorcycle. But because this doesn't have an engine, it's software. It's electrical.
LubaThat makes sense. Why did you guys get started with this model?
JoeReally, it was from personal need. So, my brother and I were both Vespa owners. We loved them, but—
LubaDo you still ride your Vespas?
JoeNo.
LubaNo.
JoeYeah, I started a company to replace it.
LubaI mean, I don't know, you know, maybe you might have some connection with your Vespa.
JoeSo, it's actually here. It's gathering dust, but it's like a historical element, the old Vespa. Basically, what happened was I'd been riding a Vespa for 10 years. My background is in software. And then, during COVID, Eddie and I were living together. My Vespa got stolen. I was like, okay, I've had that forever. I'll go get something electric. The future's going to be electric. And went shopping, and I was just super uninspired by everything that was out there.
And I went back to Eddie, and I was like, I think there's something we can do in this space. We didn't know what we didn't know, and started a COVID project nights and weekends of building a better vehicle, and that became P1. So, it was—
LubaVery cool.
JoeThree years of just nights and weekends, personal funding.
LubaAnd you guys were both running your own companies at the time. You software, and then Eddie a hardware kind of like hardware meditation. Awesome.
JoeAfter we started working on P1, we realized that the way that we were going to actually make this experience available to more people was to shrink the vehicle into something that you could ride in the bike lane. So, that is Olto. It is a class two e-bike, meaning that you don't need a license to drive it. You can go in the bike lane. It's quick enough. It can go up to—
LubaAlmost.
JoeYeah, it turns on like that. You've got the battery under the seat. So, I'll just show you here. So, battery comes out like this. And then we make a charging dock. That thing over there that you leave in your apartment.
LubaGot it. And you can just set it in there.
JoeExactly.
LubaAnd what about the charging for that one? I assume that the battery is not removable.
JoeNo, it is removable.
LubaOh, it is removable, too.
JoeYeah, it's not as easily removable, but it is removable. So, I'll show you that.
LubaI saw that for P1, there was a really ergonomic hook for your helmet. Is it the same situation for Olto?
JoeThere you go. So, you just hook your helmet on there.
LubaGot it. Very cool. Nice.
JoeBut here, so both vehicles connect to your phone, so you don't need a key, but we do have an NFC card for both. So, you go in here, there's storage under the seat. And then there's a battery in there. So, you can just take it out.
LubaAs this battery?
JoeNo, this is a 72-V battery.
LubaGot you.
JoeIt's about double the size physically. That one is a 48-V. That weighs 20 lb, this weighs like 45. So, it's—
LubaGot you. So, is there also a dock for this one, or do you have to plug it in to charge?
JoeThis one, there's no dock, but you can plug it straight into a wall. You don't need an extra adapter or anything.
LubaAwesome.
JoeYou can also plug both vehicles into the wall themselves without taking the battery.
LubaYeah, yeah.
JoeYeah, there's a charge port right here. So, you just open that up, plug it in, normal outlet. The charger actually fits in this bag. So, there's a charger in here. You can just drop it in there.
LubaI think I saw Olto on the streets of New York maybe six months ago in SoHo. There were a few placed on the street as if it was kind of a showroom display. And I thought they really looked Cybertruck-inspired. It was like all things, maybe those.
JoeBut I think it was probably by the Andreessen office.
LubaIt was by the Andreessen office.
JoeThat was a funny thing. So, we had an event in our space.
LubaUh-huh.
JoeAnd so, we couldn't work out of here. And so, Andreessen let us work out of their office. And so, we all rolled up on P1.
LubaPersonal vehicle. So, they got it.
JoeThe design of these vehicles, they're each a little bit different. They each have their own character, but there are commonalities. So, at Infinite Machine, we like to make things that are durable, that are honestly constructed, that push the envelope of manufacturing techniques, that are exciting and inspiring, that are simple and beautiful. Those are consistent on both. This is an anodized aluminum construction that is powder-coated aluminum. And so, we're using more industrial methods than like car auto body paint.
But we really designed P1 to make a statement. P1 is announcing itself. It's, you know, it looks nothing like anything that's out there. And Olto also doesn't look anything like what's in the world, but we wanted it to be a little bit more soft-spoken. So, you'll notice that on the front of the vehicles, on P1, you've got this very prominent kind of light element over here.
LubaOh, very cool. I didn't see this.
JoeYeah, so this is a light and that's kind of like the iconic fascia of the vehicle.
LubaYeah, yeah. It's like a grill, right?
JoeIt's like a grill. It's not an actual grill, but we call it the grill. And then on Olto, it's much more subtle. So, you've got your light here. But there's no like sort of dominant face element there. And that's because, you know, you're driving this with cars. You're driving this with bikes.
LubaRight.
JoeSo, when you're with cars, you want to have more prominence as a rider.
LubaStatement.
JoeTo make a statement. You want to like assert yourself more. When you're in the bike lane, you don't need that, right? You can be a lot more of—
LubaStay more inconspicuous.
JoeExactly.
LubaTell me a bit more about the marketing campaign. Obviously, we've seen it all over New York. It's a sick campaign.
JoeWe shot 100 New Yorkers on Olto. The campaign's called Eclectic Vehicle. And we had like all kinds of people, rappers, New York City Ballet dancers, designers, founders, everyday New Yorkers, you know, my mom was in it.
LubaYeah, you guys were in it, you and your brother, too.
JoeExactly.
LubaHow did you recruit all the celebs to be in it?
JoeIt's just a mixture. It's honestly just kind of our networks.
LubaGot it.
JoeBoth ours internally and also—
LubaFor them? You're like, "You'll be in our campaign. Here's a vehicle."
JoeThat, for two people. I won't say who, but we, but everyone else, no.
LubaWas down, okay. Very cool.
JoeYeah.
LubaOkay, want to show me the space?
JoeAbsolutely. So, yeah, we're in our showroom here. This is customer-facing. Anybody can come in, test out a vehicle.
LubaSo, someone could be walking down the street and go—
JoeDown the street, come check out a vehicle, buy one, kit it out with accessories. And then, what's cool about the space is it's everything under one roof. So, we've got our showroom, we've got our prototyping factory, we've got our warehouse, we have our design studio and back office all in the same facility here in New York.
LubaWhy did you decide to headquarter in New York? I know you guys are from New York.
JoeNew York. We love New York. We make vehicles that are first for New York and then kind of shareable to the rest of the world. And New York is very much imprinted in how we think. The diversity of it, the, you know, we make things for a lot of different kinds of people. And then also we're very inspired by the culture of the city and the diversity of the kinds of people that are here.
So, you know, the group of people that work here are not kind of cookie-cutter San Francisco startup. It's really from all walks of life and many different disciplines. So, we've got people who've been machinists for 25 years or mechanics or have built warehouses, have designed, you know, physical products in a different way. We have creative directors who come from the fashion and more apparel world. So, we're pulling from a lot of different disciplines.
And I'd say also aesthetically, you know, we are very much inspired by the city, and I'd say we hope to be part of like a new design language, like a New York design language that we're excited about. And yeah, I think that, you know, if you were to look at one of our vehicles and you were to guess, like, where was this designed, I don't think it reads as like San Francisco per se, but I hope that it comes to mean like New York. Yeah, so.
Yeah, but we love the city ultimately. We love the people here and we are excited to just build a new kind of company in this place 'cause it is unusual. There's—
LubaYeah, there's no hardware, no vehicle companies in New York really, right? Is that really true? You guys are the first one, or what kind of vehicles are there?
JoeThere are, you know, there are a couple. There's a company called Tarform which makes electric motorcycles. There are definitely some smaller outfits.
LubaBut this is not the city for this type of production.
JoeYeah. So, we're, yeah, we're trying to do a new thing.
LubaLove it. So, what are these? Tell me.
JoeSo, these are Oltos. They're going out to customers. So, we are in mass production right now. We're back-ordered, but we're fulfilling these orders as quickly as we can. So, we're just getting them ready. We're prepping them for people. You know, you could see here, these are like the accessories that come with the vehicle. This is like the, it's pretty cool. We built a whole system for inventory management. And so, we have all the information for the customer.
LubaYou built your own system for inventory management?
JoeWell, just, you know, we are using other systems, but every product has its own—
LubaIts own quirks.
JoeThing. So, for example, like each vehicle has a bunch of chips on it. And each of those chips is running its own firmware. So, we do a check to make sure that every component is up to date. That's unique to our QC process. So, that's a thing.
LubaAnd so, these vehicles are not produced in this factory, but they're shipped whenever they're ready here.
JoeIs that we design everything here, we engineer everything here, we prototype everything here. So, we have a full machine shop right behind us where we can go from an idea to a finished vehicle in this space. All the electronics, all the metalwork, all the paint, everything we do here. Once we lock in a design that we're super excited about, we then go figure out what a mass production strategy looks like for a product. And that involves working with the best manufacturers in the world to do that. A vehicle is not a single product. It's a product that's made up of about 300 components.
LubaWow.
JoeAnd so, each of those components has a different kind of manufacturer. So, for example, the anodized aluminum panels on Olto, that's made by one of the best anodizers in the world. The electrical components are made by another factory. So, our job is to choreograph that whole process and then integrate them in a way that's coherent.
LubaVery cool. How did you pick your manufacturer? How did you convince them to work with you?
JoeThey really wanted to work with us. You know, I think one of the coolest things that we've learned is that awesome products are inspiring not just for customers, but for everyone.
LubaFor everyone.
JoeLike great manufacturers want to work with us to make this thing real.
LubaMhm.
JoeAmazing talent wants to come and build it. And so honestly, it's been kind of one of the learnings, which is when you design something really exciting and inspiring—
LubaPeople want to rally.
JoePeople, especially if they're the right kinds of partners for us, which are folks that do want to like realize big ideas.
LubaVery cool.
JoeYeah.
LubaOkay, so you guys prototype here, then the products get shipped. Why do you ship them from here versus having the manufacturer ship? Maybe they don't have shipping capabilities.
JoeSo, right now because we're still at early days, we process everything here first. However, we have designed the product and the packaging, so one day we'll be able to just send the box straight to a customer. Actually, that will be happening pretty soon, like over the next couple months. But you can see over there what a vehicle looks like when it's packaged.
LubaRight.
JoeIt's a user-disassemblable container, and there's no setup required. You just turn it on.
LubaOh, awesome.
JoeSo, it's ready to go out of the box, fully built.
LubaVery cool.
JoeBut you know, for the first few hundred units, it's about, you know, kind of just making sure everything's perfect before they get into customers' hands. So, we do one more pass here.
LubaWhen did you guys start shipping the Oltos?
JoeWe started shipping them this winter, actually. That was like a beta run in New York and San Francisco, but this summer is really where it hits scale.
LubaVery cool. Tell me a bit more about the colors. So, these are all black, but then you're going to do custom wrapping.
JoeSo, yeah, we make them out of the box in either anodized black aluminum or a clear anodized, so it's silver. These are all the black base, but we also offer custom colors for people, and we do that with wrapping. So, we offer five colors that we can show you. And then we offer also custom wraps, so you can choose any color you want.
LubaAha. Wait, so what are the five colors that you're offering?
JoeSo, we've got, I don't know the names that we chose, but I think that's forest, which is green, we have blush, which is a pink—
LubaBright.
JoeWe have red, I think we call that crimson—
LubaAha.
JoeWe have a—
LubaSo, these are not wrapped, or these are wrapped?
JoeThat's wrapped.
LubaThat's wrapped, okay. But these are wrapped out of the five, and then you can go and customize if you—
JoeBut yeah, I mean, this is an amazing finish 'cause it's super durable. If you change your mind and you're like, "Oh, I want this to actually be the pink." You can change it at any point in time. We'll handle it for you. So, yeah, you can see here, this is a forest green one. I think it looks amazing, and yeah.
So, the speed limit of e-bikes is capped, so it's not really about how fast it goes.
LubaRight?
JoeThis can go, so, it ships out of the box at 20 mph, which is a class two e-bike. We do have an app that lets you change the mode of the vehicle, so you could put it in class three mode, which has a 25 mph limit. There's also a mode that you can use off-road, which is not in a bike lane, and that can go up to 35 mph, but it ships out of the box at 20. So, the power is one thing, it's very quick off the line. The ride quality is amazing, so it's super smooth. We've got front and rear suspension, so you can ride on cobblestones, you don't feel it.
LubaThat's amazing.
JoeIt also seats two people out of the gate, which is—
LubaIs not something that's common for—
JoeThere's a ton of storage area, so we've got this center area, and—
LubaThis is all storage.
JoeYeah, and we have these sidewall inserts that are in the front that slip into these little slits here, and it creates a basket. The front into a basket. We also have a rear basket that you can attach. It's got a ton of tech, so you park the vehicle on the street, it locks itself—
LubaMhm.
JoeAnd has its own alarm system and is GPS tracked. So, we've never had a theft.
LubaWow.
JoeWhen someone tries to move the vehicle, it locks itself, doesn't allow you to push it, there's an alarm that goes off, and then the owner is notified—
LubaOn their phone—
JoeThat, you know, someone's tampering with—
LubaYeah. Your vehicle.
JoeWith the vehicle. So, a bunch there. You can share access with a friend remotely. You can look at all your ride history. So, we built in a lot of digital tools for it. So, there's not one thing about this product. It's really all of the things that come together to make it really work.
But you can think about this as kind of like a car replacement in a city. So, it's your way that you're getting around. You can park it anywhere. You don't have to bring it in. It's totally weatherproof. It's quick. It's sturdy. It's comfortable. Yeah, so.
LubaDo you think New Yorkers should wear a helmet in the bike lane?
JoeAlways.
LubaOkay.
JoeYeah, always.
LubaNo one wearing a helmet?
JoeWell, 'cause a lot of people are on Citi Bikes and—
LubaYeah, they don't provide helmets. Makes sense.
Who is the Olto for? So, it's for someone who's commuting around the city. Are you guys targeting a specific persona, or, I know you talked a lot about diversity, is it a diverse set of people who can benefit from the—
JoeIt's, I mean, it's really anyone who wants a better way to get around their environment that's going, you know, 5 to 10 miles a day to work or to do their life. That's really, yeah. So, a lot of our customers do come from the tech world, but we also have an extremely diverse age range, all genders, all professions. Like, if you live in an urban environment, we think that we figured out a better way to get around.
LubaYou get around?
JoeIt's better than the train. It's way better than sitting in the back of the Uber. It's way better than a Citi Bike. It's freedom, you know? And so anyone who's like interested in a better way to get around, we did it.
LubaTell me about this. Is this the first prototype?
JoeThis is what we call P0. It is the first prototype. This was really the proving ground for us to decide that we actually wanted to move forward with—
LubaSo, is this the one that Eddie and you built on nights and weekends, or this is not the one?
JoeYes, and our third co-founder, Zach, who did actually more of the real building. You know, we had a bunch of ideas and designs, but Zach actually made this real. And so, yeah, Zach's our co-founder. He's a brilliant engineer. And so, yeah, so we built this. This was on nights and weekends.
LubaVery cool.
JoeAnd—
LubaYeah, so the end version looks pretty similar to this. What is this for?
JoeThis is like a storage box.
LubaGot it.
JoeI mean, the idea was that it's like a super modular system. So, you can put stuff on the side. We actually do have a mounting system like this on P1, so you can attach boxes like that.
LubaAnd how did you guys find Zach as a co-founder? So, you and your brother were running separate companies and you were working, as you said, nights and weekends. How did Zach come into the picture?
JoeFortuitous. So, we were like, "Okay, like we want to work on this project. We need to find a space, you know, like a workshop."
LubaYeah, yeah.
JoeThat's where our minds went.
LubaAnd all of this was in New York during COVID?
JoeWe found this really cool little garage in Red Hook. It's like a thousand square feet, really small. It was perfect. And like, "Okay, great. We'll like figure out a shop." And by chance, our neighbor in this building was a custom motorcycle builder. So, like, "Oh my gosh, this is amazing." Like, well, you know. So, we go over, we introduce ourselves. Guy's name was Carlos. And we're like, "Hey Carlos, we have this idea. You know, we're coming from like a totally different world, so we don't know what the hell we're talking about."
LubaRight.
JoeAnd we tell him the idea and he's very excited about it. He wants to help us. So now it's COVID. We're doing Zoom calls, and after like a couple weeks Carlos is like, "Hey guys, I love what you're doing, but I'm not your guy. I build custom Harleys, you know, like not electric scooters." And so he's like, "But I know someone you should meet."
LubaWow.
JoeHis name is Zach, and Zach studied vehicle engineering, is a brilliant vehicle engineer, but he also is a machinist and fabricator and built a business building not only vehicles but also architectural fabrication and metalwork. So staircases and, you know, giant structures. And so he had a lot of the competency that we needed for building a vehicle like P1, which is not only a mechanical and electrical system but also, you know, it's sculpture. It's a moving sculpture, and Zach had a lot of that skill, and we just hit it off. In the beginning we were just working in a light capacity, and then over time we're like, "You know what? Like, we should do this for real."
LubaSo this is where the team sits.
JoeYeah, this is where the company is. We've got a lot of prototypes here and we're like trying to make room for stuff because we've got all this inventory coming in, so we're like a little bit stuffed to the gills.
LubaAnd you said that the team is around 20 people, which is insane. I mean, producing like a hardware company, a vehicle from the ground up with 20 people. Wow.
JoeYeah, two vehicles.
LubaAwesome. Sweet. Well, thank you so much for the tour.
JoeAbsolutely.
LubaWoo! Awesome. Loved it.
JoeGreat.