Michelle Nazzari and Simon Modra met at a wedding several years ago in Sydney and spent the evening talking about motorbikes.

The pair of entrepreneurs stayed in touch after going their separate ways: he went back to Adelaide and various start-ups in the sustainability sector; she to her own electric-vehicle company.

Ms Nazzari said: “Working in auto-motive manufacturing with electric and hybrid buses, I considered the powertrain to be relatively simple. After thinking ‘I might give this a go’, I set up the company and started tinkering.”

Ms Nazzari launched her first electric scooter in 2013 under the Fonzarelli brand (www.fonzarelli.co) and has grown the business from there.

She recently contacted Mr Modra to tackle the issue of charging stations for her recently launched NKD motorbike — an electric dual-sport mini-moto with a range of 120km and a top speed of 100kph.

Mr Modra, who is also an architect and a ‘future submarine’ design researcher at the University of South Australia, was keen to collaborate with Ms Nazzari on the NKD project; he also convinced her to manufacture the charging stations and bike in South Australia.

He said. “There are many motorcyclists out there who don’t have a car, and we are fortunate that battery power has become so reliable.

“We already have an incredible range with this vehicle — and it is improving all the time.”

Moreover, the ‘Fonzarelli’ technology can be retrofitted to older motorcycles, greatly expanding the potential customer base for this product.

Ms Nazzari said: “The idea at the moment is to solidify ourselves here in Australia, but we have garnered strong interest from around the world.”