As many businesses and agencies are feeling strains from the economy, one Flagstaff start up is seeing success. Motor Excellence just moved into a 5,000-square-foot facility on Butler Avenue and has hired a team to move the company forward.

Motor Excellence is researching and developing a new electric motor with unusual power and torque. The technology could be revolutionary in the motor world.

The partners include David Calley, the inventor of the concept and founder of Southwest Windpower, Tom Janecek, a prototype specialist, and Michael Manson, who co-founded PetSmart.

While the new motor could be used in transportation, Michael Manson said there’s a long lead time in the automotive industry. Initially, Motor Excellence is working on products that are quicker to market.

“Two-thirds of energy is consumed by the transportation market, one-third by electricity,” said Manson. “Of the electrical market, two-thirds is consumed by electrical motors. We want to make them much more environmentally compatible,” he added. The company could build motors for cars eventually.

Motor Excellence has done a phenomenal job of getting off the ground, said Tom Rainey, president of the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies. NACET is a small business incubator helping high tech industries succeed in Flagstaff. They’ve been working with Motor Excellence since last May helping them develop a business plan and supporting initial fund raising efforts.

“They’re just a classic example of an affiliate client company that really didn’t need to have access to our physical space but were very much interested in being part of this program,” said Rainey.

The NACET president said he enjoyed working with Manson and Calley, who he calls seasoned entrepreneurs. Rainey is enthusiastic about the revolutionary technology, and believes the electric motor’s greater efficiency is a move toward clean energy. He said he’s also impressed by Motor Excellence’s ability to garner interest and support in the current economic environment.

People shouldn’t come to the new Motor Excellence facility hoping to buy a motor, jokes Manson, who said they’re in their initial growth phase. “In the near future we are building additional prototypes, validating the concept and we’ll move to product development in the next 18 months,” added Manson.

As co-founder of Motor Excellence, Michael Manson said the company is committed to staying in Flagstaff, a town he has loved since childhood. Flagstaff doesn’t have the largest employment base, he said, but it has wonderful, well-educated people and it’s a fun place to live and work.

Manson says it can be difficult developing a new technology company. He believes people can find success if they focus on underlying truths instead of the potential fruits of an effort. He attributes his success to what he calls ‘a passion for people, a desire to serve God and to free truth.’

The new facility for Motor Excellence is located at 1359 E. Butler Avenue .

For more information: www.nacet.org