The NEWO Story — Part I

An Old Idea Made New

Some companies begin with a business plan.

NEWO began with a question.

A little more than three years ago, the Costa Rican government announced it would extend tax incentives for electric vehicles. It was a relatively small policy decision, but it caught my attention immediately. Cars in Costa Rica are expensive—often significantly more expensive than in many other countries—largely because of import duties. Electric vehicles suddenly had a meaningful advantage, and it felt like an opportunity worth exploring.

I started studying the market.

Importing mainstream electric cars didn’t seem particularly interesting. That space was already dominated by major manufacturers and specialized distributors. The other obvious category was golf carts. In coastal towns across Costa Rica they are everywhere—large American brands, smaller imports, and a growing number of inexpensive Chinese models.

But neither category felt right.

Traditional cars were too large and too expensive for short coastal trips. Golf carts were practical, but limited. There was nothing in between.

That gap was interesting.

While researching alternatives, I came across a French company called Nosmoke. They had revived an electric version of a curious little vehicle: the Mini Moke.

At first glance, the car looked simple—almost playful. But the concept behind it was clever. It was small, open, and lightweight, capable of reaching around 75 km/h with roughly 100 kilometers of range. Not quite a car, but far more capable than a golf cart. It was designed for places where the weather is beautiful most of the year—places like Saint‑Tropez or the Côte d’Azur, where driving is less about transportation and more about enjoying the journey.

As I dug deeper, I discovered the unusual history behind the vehicle.

The Mini Moke was never meant to be a leisure car. In the late 1950s, the British government asked British Motor Corporation to design a lightweight military vehicle that could rival the Willys Jeep. Engineers built a prototype using the platform of the famous Mini. The idea was ambitious: a compact vehicle light enough to be parachuted into the field.

But when the British Army tested it, the limitations quickly became clear. The small wheels and low clearance made it poorly suited for rough terrain, and the project was abandoned.

Rather than abandoning the vehicle altogether, the manufacturer tried to reposition it. First as a farm vehicle—hence the name “Moke,” inspired by the idea of a mule. That didn’t work either. But the car eventually found its real identity somewhere completely unexpected.

On the beaches of Australia, surfers began using it as a coastal vehicle to explore shorelines and search for waves. Later it became something of an icon along the French Riviera. Photos from the era show Brigitte Bardot cruising along the coast with several dogs in the back, while Paul McCartney was known to drive his children to school in one.

A vehicle originally designed for the military had accidentally become something else entirely—a leisure car, a symbol of sunshine and freedom.

Decades later, entrepreneurs began bringing the concept back to life as an electric vehicle. Companies like Nosmoke in France, Moke International in the United Kingdom, and Moke America in the United States all played a role in keeping the spirit of the Moke alive. Each approached the concept slightly differently—some focusing on premium recreations of the original car, others adapting it to the golf-cart market—but together they demonstrated that the idea still resonated.

The name itself, however, became complicated. The original vehicle had been called the Mini Moke, but the name “Mini” remains the property of BMW Group, which owns the modern Mini brand. What remained was simply “Moke,” a name that has been the subject of various disputes between companies claiming rights to it. At one point, a U.S. judge even suggested that the term might refer less to a specific brand and more to a type of vehicle.

For us, that complexity made the path forward clearer.

Long before this idea took shape, I had acquired the domain newo.com. It was a simple four-letter name—easy to remember, easy to pronounce—but what attracted me most was its meaning. In ancient English, newo meant “new.” I had always liked the idea behind that word: taking something familiar and giving it a new life.

When I discovered the story of the Mini Moke, the connection suddenly felt obvious. Electrifying the concept and adapting it to Costa Rica was exactly that idea—taking something old and making it new.

NEWO.

There was also a practical reason. If we had wanted to reference the past directly, the only name that would have made sense was Mini Moke—but that name is legally tied to the Mini brand. Using simply “Moke” would have meant entering an already complicated naming landscape. Creating something new felt like the right approach: respecting the spirit of the original idea while building an identity of our own.

With that idea in mind, the next step was obvious. If this type of vehicle could exist in Europe or the United States, why couldn’t something similar exist in Costa Rica? A lightweight electric car. Simple, open, and joyful to drive. A car designed not just for transportation, but for the experience of moving through beautiful places.

So I began searching for a manufacturing partner who could help bring that vision to life.

Eventually, I found a company in China willing to work with us. About a year later, the first vehicles arrived in Costa Rica. They sold almost immediately.

But they also revealed something else.

Building an electric vehicle—even a small one—was going to be far more complicated than we imagined.

And that’s where the real adventure began.