{"id":1686,"date":"2025-06-23T10:15:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/?p=1686"},"modified":"2025-06-23T10:15:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:15:35","slug":"simon-strancar-spark-lpg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/zgodbe-akrobatov\/simon-strancar-spark-lpg\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon \u0160trancar, Spark LPG"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Well, it's not exactly a motivational start, but it's an encouraging end, so read on ...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What problem are they solving?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

27 million cars run on clean, user-friendly alternative fuel LPG. Market share is growing steadily. However, the autogas technology used in these cars is outdated and not suitable for new cars equipped with modern efficient direct injection engines. In the next 10 years, all these users will be replacing their vehicles with new modern ones and will need our product to continue using autogas, reducing their driving costs by 50 % or more and drastically cutting pollution with a green alternative fuel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What solution do they offer?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

They have developed a new autogas technology for engines with direct fuel injection into the engine cylinder. They produce their own electronics, their own hardware, everything is in-house production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon \u0160trancar <\/strong>together with his colleagues, identified a problem in converting cars to autogas and, enterprising as he is, developed a solution - a new autogas technology for engines with direct fuel injection into the engine cylinder. In doing so, they are busting the myth that electric cars have 0 emissions - this has been proven not to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Simon, it can be a long and arduous journey from idea to realisation. How was it for you?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    \"Yes, long and tiring. It's a good thing I didn't know what I was in for. But now we are so far along in our development, so many grey hairs, that we really have to finish what we set out to do. Let's move forward.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • How did you get started?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      \"To develop such a high-end product (we used the best components, gold-plated motherboards...), you need money first, of course. Through the P2 and SK75 projects, we raised enough funds to make a batch of 50 prototypes. Otherwise, we were giving up our own income to make this feasible. We did all the development as a hobby. We used our own funds to buy materials, equipment, test on our own cars, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But then it started - we looked for suppliers to help us produce components at low cost. Not easy at all. If you go to big manufacturers with a lot of knowledge and good machines, they are mostly not interested in dealing with small start-ups like us. Why break even at 50 pieces when they have clients of 1000 pieces... At 50, their machine doesn't even warm up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Smaller operators who would be willing to produce this often do not have the know-how or the machinery for a more complex product like ours. Our product has about 230 components in the mechanical part alone, and over 700 components in the electronics.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      • So how do we get to the first prototype batches?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        \"Unless you have a high initial investment, which we didn't have, it's almost impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Our competitors said to us: 'We have invested three million to develop something similar,' we have spent just over \u20ac125,000, 'but it doesn't work for us. That's why we don't believe that you, a small start-up of three people, can develop it. Well, if you do, come and see us, we'll be happy to buy you outright'. It's not easy ...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        This has led us to change a number of suppliers during the product development process. With all the time delays, this is quite stressful for the team. Every time we have to do it again, it gets more tiring. We've almost given up ...\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n
        • This is where Catapult and Dewesoft want to help.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          \"It's true. We caught on quickly with Catapult and Dewesoft. They offered us to try to produce the electronic components, the fuel switch housing and the multivalve housing treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          All this has been realised. They also offered us all the possible testing we would need to get the certificates. What they are offering is an outstanding contribution to the hardware startup community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          We know that their work with us will not cover this financially ...<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          When we were about to accept that the project was going to fail after several years of development (we started in 2013\/2014), Katapult and Dewesoft literally rescued us from the pit with their help. I am incredibly grateful for their help. There is no way to describe this gratitude ...\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \n
          • The main added value of Catapult in conjunction with Dewesoft is precisely the support with knowledge, experience, machines and measuring instruments for hardware startups. Do you think we need more of that?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

            \"Many business incubators around Slovenia teach soft skills. Which is great. But then you get to the step - who's going to do it. Most incubators don't even have technological skills, let alone anything more concrete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            You need something concrete: 'Look, the machine has spare capacity, give us the electricity and the materials and we'll make this for you'.That's what Dewesoft offered us, alongside their knowledge and mentoring. That's worth gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Unfortunately, in general, startups with a Harware product are poorly catered for in Slovenia. There is a lack of knowledge and there are no companies willing to help, knowing how much money needs to be invested in developing such a complex product and then industrialising it. We are talking millions here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Let's be clear - I am not in favour of helping just anyone with any idea. Absolutely not, there must be no exploitation of the aid. But when a company comes along and it is recognised that it has great potential, both in terms of technology and in terms of its team, and that it has the potential to create many jobs in the long term, then it makes sense to support it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I hope that there will be another company in Slovenia, like Dewesoft, that will support startups, that will offer them its production capacities and know-how... Even better, such companies could join together and create a hardware venture fund, from which they could invest in promising companies. I have seen first-hand what Dewesoft is doing in America. They call it 'return to community'. It is an honour for successful companies to give back to the community, and to help promising start-ups. Here you feel that spirit of wanting to help. Honour and pride before profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            What will ultimately create jobs? Even when we start serious production, we will have to create at least 20 jobs immediately to support the production processes, and if we grow ... Isn't that what is in the interest of society, of the community, of the future ...?\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \n
            • Simon, what are the next steps?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

              So far, we have managed to develop the product with minimal investment. Now we need an investor to set up production. So - yes, we are looking for an investor. Ultimately, it will depend on the investor whether the high value-added jobs created are really in Slovenia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              \"simon\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

              \"We believe that the future lies in the combined use of different fuels, renewable and non-renewable.\"\u00a0Simon \u0160trancar<\/em>
              <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              “\u010ce bi se \u0161e enkrat lotil \u2026 no, pod nobenim pogojem se ne bi \u0161e enkrat lotil tega. \u0160e dobro, da nisem vedel, kaj me \u010daka.”<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,37,9],"class_list":["post-1686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zgodbe-akrobatov","tag-mesto-akrobatov","tag-simon-strancar","tag-zgodbe-akrobatov"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/simon-strancar-spark-lpg.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Petra \u0160karja","author_link":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/author\/petras\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1686\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mestoakrobatov.si\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}