Unagi, maker of the premium electric scooter Model One, has announced a major expansion of its Unagi All-Access subscription service. The service is designed to put these expensive scooters under rider’s feet for a low monthly fee. No more having to shell out full price for a high-end electric scooter.
And just so you’re aware, these aren’t your typical Lime or Bird electric scooters that we’re talking about here.
Unagi’s Model One is a fancy-pants premium electric scooter built from machined magnesium, carbon fiber, and with embedded silicone. This isn’t some cheap steel and rubber scooter that is going to fall apart in a few months.
The dual-motor Model One is normally priced at $990. But with Unagi’s All-Access monthly subscription service, riders can get their hands on one for as low as $49 per month (or $39 per month with an annual plan).
At 50 bucks per month, that’s $1.63 per day. A four-minute ride on a Lime scooter would cost the same (and who knows where that shared scooter has been?).
The Unagi All-Access price includes home delivery of the scooter, maintenance, insurance against damage or theft, and replacement scooters should something happen to yours.
As the company explained:
“Your Unagi subscription guarantees maximum scoot-time. If you run into any maintenance trouble, we’ll resolve it by sending you a replacement that arrives in less than 72 hours. You can ride confidently knowing your subscription also includes full insurance against theft or damage.”
The Unagi All-Access service first rolled out in just NYC and Los Angeles last summer, but now Unagi is expanding its footprint to cover as many as 30 million Americans.
Starting today, the subscription service is expanding to Austin, Miami, Nashville, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle.
The scope of the LA and NYC coverage is also expanding, with NYC service spreading out across the five boroughs, Long Island, and down into much of northern New Jersey, while the greater LA region is now included as well.
This marks the largest subscription service rollout from an electric scooter manufacturer ever. You can find maps showing all of the service areas on Unagi’s site.
To help facilitate this new growth, Unagi is also announcing a successful $10.5M Series A funding round.
The new round was led by the Ecosystem Integrity Fund with participation from Menlo Ventures, Broadway Angels, and Gaingels, among others.
Subscription services for personal electric vehicles is a quickly growing market. Revel, which is better known for its shared electric mopeds, recently launched a subscription service for electric bicycles.
The strategy helps companies expand their market to those that can’t afford to purchase these expensive transportation devices but that still want to benefit from having their own non-shared ride with their name on it.
Electrek’s take
First of all, this is a great scooter. I’ve reviewed it and it really is a premium product. It feels like what would happen if Apple made electric scooters.
Each part has such great attention to detail. Even the folding mechanism, which isn’t normally a centerpiece on scooters, is incredibly well designed. It’s a one-touch button and is honestly the nicest folding mechanism I’ve ever seen in an electric scooter.
You can see it in my review video below.
Regarding these subscription models that are quickly popping up, I’m a fan, too. I think they have a lot of benefits over the traditional by-the-minute shared platforms.
The scooters last longer because people actually take care of them. That makes the entire industry more sustainable.
Riders ensure they always have a scooter on hand instead of needing to hunt for one anytime they need a ride.
Cities don’t have as much scooter clutter since riders aren’t tossing shared scooters all over the place like cigarette butts.
Everyone wins! If I lived in one of these cities, I would absolutely use this service. A fancy electric scooter that I don’t have to freak out if it gets dinged? Yes please!
Now someone just explain to me how Unagi profits at just 50 bucks per month while covering all the maintenance, insurance, and replacement scooters.
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