Mike Keane, Entrepreneur Experience Alumni named EV Pioneer of the Year
04 April, 2025
Huge Congratulations to Entrepreneur Experience Alumni Mike Keane, founder of Hibra Design who has been awarded EV Pioneer Of the Year at the prestigious Business Post Electric Vehicle Awards 2025. The accolade recognises his outstanding contributions to advancing electric vehicles (EV) technology and shaping the future of sustainable mobility.
Mike participated in the 2023 Entrepreneur Experience and also was awarded 'One to Watch' at the Enterprise Ireland Prep4Seed Investor Day 2023. AxisBIC has worked extensively with Mike on his business plan and investor readiness.
With over twenty-five years of automotive engineering, Keane has played a leading role in revolutionising vehicle electrification. His career includes senior technical roles on high-profile projects for global, blue-chip companies such as Williams F1, Ford, Land Rover, Jaguar and Nissan. As an example, he was Design Lead on the groundbreaking 2012 Jaguar C-X75 hybrid supercar. He has worked on a wide variety of vehicles including supercars, passenger cars, heavy and light goods vehicles, industrial and public transport vehicles, motorcycles and competition vehicles.
In 2022, he founded Cork-based Hibra Design, an automotive engineering development company. Hibra Design is unique in the Irish market as the company provides its clients with a full spectrum of vehicle engineering services; from full ground-up, bespoke vehicle development, through to the re-engineering of existing vehicles with clean technology powertrain systems.
In less than three years since its inception, the company has successfully secured programmes for public and private sector clients in Ireland, EU, Middle-East and South Africa; and already has been recognised with multiple industry awards including Enterprise Ireland’s One-To-Watch 2023, and winning the Product and Manufacturing Gold Award at the 2024 National Start-Up Awards.