The 30 mph giant-wheeled electric scooter you couldn’t buy is now for sale

The Stator electric scooter, which is one of the most interesting designs we’ve seen for a standing electric scooter, is finally heading to market.

And based on the comments we received when I first covered the Stator electric scooter prototype over a year ago, there has been some serious pent-up demand for a scooter like this.

The unique design with giant tires, single-sided wheels, and self-balancing nature (or perhaps more accurately described as “self-righting”) have proven popular with consumers.

But even with the high demand seen for the Stator, it still took its sweet time finding a path to market.

The concept for the scooter was created by Nathan Allen, who is the director of industrial design at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California.

From there, the design caught the interest of businessman and investor Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the founder and chairman of NantWorks. Under its new subsidiary NantMobility, Soon-Shiong has helped prepare the Stator electric scooter for market.

With its distinctive design, the Stator electric scooter is certainly unique in the market. The handlebar is single-sided and houses a twist throttle, brake lever, horn button, LED battery indicator, on/off button, and a key lock.

All of the wiring is routed inside of the handlebar and stem, resulting in the clean outward appearance.

The scooter is rated for a top speed of 30 mph (51 km/h) and comes with a 1 kWh battery. The company rates it for up to 80 miles (129 km) of range, but that’s a pipe dream unless you’re riding it at less than rental-scooter speed. For comparison, other scooters of similar power levels with 50% more battery capacity have realistic ranges of 50-60 miles (80-96 km).

According to the company:

Fully electric, the Stator scooter operates in relative silence, affording its rider the luxury of bypassing city gridlock in peace for more than an hour following a battery charge. This represents a substantial advance in micromobility, in stark contrast to the noisy, fossil-fuel burning scooters currently choking city roads and sidewalks across the country. Stator’s speed and ride comfort eclipse the jarring and slow ride that current small wheel scooters deliver.

Unlike low-quality, generic rental scooter options, the Stator is built to last and is available for individual purchase. Each owner will know from the first ride why NantMobility is proud of the Stator and will share in that through pride of ownership.

The 90 lb (41 kg) scooter features a 50 inch (1.27 meter) wheel base and rides on 18 x 17.8 – 10 sized tires. And those fan blades you see designed into the wheels? Those are for helping to cool the motor.

Stator electric scooter begins taking pre-orders

If you’re looking to get your hands and feet on your own Stator electric scooter, then I hope you’ve been saving up.

The Stator is priced at $3,995, though you’ll only need to put down $250 to reserve your own Stator. Just try not to think about how that same $250 deposit could buy you an entire Amazon electric scooter.

To sweeten the deal and add a bit of exclusivity to the scooter, NantWorks says that the first 1,000 Launch Edition Stators will be graced with a custom metal plate, numbered and signed by the development team. Deliveries are expected in “early 2020.”

As Soon-Shiong explained in a statement sent to Electrek:

Our goal at NantWorks is to combine the collective promise of science, technology, and communication and make it accessible to all people. The Stator Scooter is the physical application of that goal — grace in motion that serves a functional purpose.

Electrek’s Take

It’s a sexy electric scooter, that’s for sure. And I love the idea of those giant tires.

But $4,000? That’s going to be a tough sell for me, especially when I can get a 44 mph (70 km/h) seated electric scooter from NIU with more than double the battery for that price.

And while I’m at it, I’d love to see NantMobility provide a real world range for the Stator electric scooter at an average speed of around 20-ish mph. A throttle-driven electric bike with the same size battery gets around 40 miles (64 km) of range at that speed, and certainly has less rolling resistance than a scooter like this. The Stator’s claim of 80 miles (129 km) of range is likely possible, but only at speeds well below its max cruising speed.

But if the Stator is really built to last like they claim, and the ride is that good, then I can see people paying for a scooter like this. It’s a premium product, but places like Silicon Valley are full of rich young dudes looking to be the first ones with a fancy new gadget.

Let’s hear what you think of the Stator electric scooter in the comments below!