electric scooter

Santa Monica and San Francisco both became epicenters of the fight over electric scooter share programs operating on public space over the past year.

After both cities eventually banned the alternative electric transportation options due to the companies operating without the cities’ blessings, they opened an application processes for permits allowing companies to operate scooter share programs. Now both cities have announced the winners of those permits, and the results are shocking riders and operators alike.

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Sit-down scooters and mopeds have been a popular form of transportation in Europe for decades, and have recently been finding favor in the US as well, as an increasing number of companies have started offering electric versions as part of their lineup.

Vespa, perhaps the most famous scooter maker of all, has finally dropped the veil on the production plans of their first electric Vespa, the Elettrica.

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There has been no shortage of new electric mopeds and scooters lately. While most companies are offering scooters with fancy, high tech features and long ranges, a new startup has debuted a basic electric scooter that is low on features and is also low in cost.
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Electric scooter sharing programs, created by companies to provide a fast and convenient form of personal electric transportation in urban areas, have not been without controversy. Starting earlier this year, the scooter sharing programs began appearing in cities across the US seemingly overnight, dumping their dockless electric scooters on sidewalks and street corners for riders to scan with a smartphone app and ride around the city. The companies often caught cities off-guard in what many perceived as a deliberate attempt to dictate the terms of their own regulations similar to the way ride shares like Uber rolled out their own services.

While detractors have cried foul over what they sometimes consider to be dangerous vehicles zipping around pedestrians, a new study has found that Americans by and large support the electric scooter rental programs, providing more evidence to show that this is anything but a temporary fad.
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Electric scooter shares have shown massive growth in cities around the US and internationally over the past year. The tiny EVs are intended to serve as “last mile” type vehicles which help commuters navigate cities faster than walking and more conveniently than taking public transportation. Riders can hop on a scooter anywhere they can find one, paying just $1.00 plus 15 cents per mile and dropping the scooter off anywhere in the city – no docking station required.

So far, the major players have been larger companies such as Bird, who is reportedly the fastest US startup ever to reach a $1 billion valuation. But with the massive growth displayed by the fledgling industry and venture capitalists tripping over each other to throw money at the startups for fear of missing the gravy train — err, gravy scooter, new electric scooter share companies are popping up all over the place.
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It seems like every week now there’s a new electric scooter share program popping up in cities around the US. Companies like Bird, Lime and Skip are quickly distributing those small and zippy little electric scooters that users can rent for just a couple bucks.

What you likely haven’t seen too many of yet are the larger types of electric scooters, ones that are more akin to electric mopeds and allow the rider to sit down as if on a bicycle. And New Yorkers may be seeing them a lot more now that a new electric scooter rental company has opened up shop in Brooklyn.
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I don’t know about you, but when I hear about Segway, it still conjures up images in my mind of mall cops and nerds on tech company campuses. However, most people don’t realize that Segway is a totally different animal these days.

After being purchased by the Chinese company Ninebot in 2015, Segway-Ninebot has been transformed into a powerhouse of personal electric vehicles. In fact, if you’ve been in a large city recently, you might have seen hundreds of Segway-Ninebot vehicles zipping around the streets in the form of popular new electric scooter programs.
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The “last mile” problem is one that cities have been trying to solve for decades. While it is fairly easy to get to most cities, getting around that last mile to your final destination is often anything but simple. On the other end of the trip, “first miles” often have the same issue. How do you get from your home or apartment to the closest bus stop or train station that will take you to work?

That responsibility has often fallen on smaller one-person forms of electric transportation, also known as personal electric vehicles (PEVs). These can be anything from electric bicycles to electric scooters and electric skateboards. Basically anything small, quick and convenient to move someone around a crowded urban environment.

In an effort to determine which of these PEVs is the best option for urban commuting, I spent the last two weeks commuting entirely by personal electric vehicle, and now I want to share my experiences to help you determine how best to get around your city. Read on to see what I learned.
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Electric stand-on scooters have been in the news a lot lately, largely due to their growing popularity in electric scooter rental programs. These scooter shares have been spreading around the US and the world, introducing commuters to the convenience of these small yet functional EVs.

So far most of the electric scooters on the road have been the same model, the popular Xiaomi M365 electric scooter used by Bird, Spin and several other electric scooter rental companies. Now a new competitor is preparing to enter the consumer electric scooter market, and this one has a style that is very much its own. 
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Even while facing rollout problems at home, electric scooter share companies are flush with cash and expanding their operations overseas. The scooter companies are hoping that they can make early claims to European cities and snatch up market share before their competitors.
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Even though we often talk about Europe and Asia having all the options for electric scooters, there are still a few models available in the US. But except for the Detroit-built GenZe 2.0, most of the currently available alternatives are either small, under powered, or use archaic lead-acid batteries.

Today that changes, as CruZer Scooter has launched their new e2000 electric scooter in the US.
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Electric scooters, ride-on scooters, mopeds – whatever you want to call them – aren’t exactly commonplace in the US. It wasn’t long ago at all that spotting these two-wheeled EVs in America’s cities was nearly impossible.

But in Bob Dylan’s ironically timeless words, “…the times, they are a’changing.”
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KYMCO, the largest motorcycle and scooter company in Taiwan, has set its sights on producing electric scooters and a compatible network of battery swap stations, plus a new standard of universal removable and swappable batteries.

As part of the first step to achieving their goal, KYMCO just unveiled their two new electric scooters lines.
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Even though Europe is ripe with scooters zipping around its streets, the variety and options for all-electric scooters don’t come close to matching those of gas scooters.

That may not be the case for long though, as an increasing number of electric scooter options are becoming available every month. Yesterday, the Chinese company Niu unveiled their two latest electric scooters that have been developed specifically for the European market.
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India has been ripe with new electric vehicle offerings lately, in large part due to a government policy to shift away from foreign imports and domestic pollution. Combine the cheap workforce with a wealth of local skilled tech workers, and you get really cool and affordable designs like the $1,125 Flow electric scooter by 22Motors.
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You’ve likely seen or heard about the massive fleets of rental electric scooters that have been taking over US cities. Even if you don’t have the rental electric scooters in your city yet, you’ve probably seen the news coverage, especially regarding the backlash against riders dangerously and illegally zipping around sidewalks and crashing into pedestrians.
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Nimble scooters are quintessentially European, with many taking design inspirations from the classic 1960’s Vespa scooters that formed the impetus for the trend. And now a new Dutch startup is throwing their hat in the ring with an impressive offering complete with all the charm of a stereotypically cute Italian scooter.
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Ather Energy has launched two new electric scooters today with a flashy unveiling event, after being in the works for two years.

The Ather 340 was revealed as the company’s entry-level model while the Ather 450 is a higher power and higher speed version that retains the same physical appearance.

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Taiwan-based electric scooter manufacturer Gogoro just launched two new models of its electric scooter lineup. The Gogoro 2 Delight is their new light scooter and the Gogoro S2 is the new higher performance model.

Both scooters incorporate the company’s sleek hot-swappable battery design, which allows the user to swap out the batteries in under 6 seconds.
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Despite becoming a popular form of transportation across Europe and Asia, two-wheeled scooters and mopeds never really caught on in the US to the same degree. But with a new wave of electric scooters coming, perhaps the time is right for that to finally change.

Mahindra certainly believes so, and has put their money where their mouth is with a production facility for their all-electric scooter, the GenZe 2.0, in the heart of Detroit.
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As we’ve previously reported, the electric scooter wars have been heating up over the past few months. Rival companies Bird, Spin and Lime have all been competing to flood streets and sidewalks of major cities with electric kick scooters that can be rented by anyone with a smart phone and parked anywhere when finished – no docking required.

Now, two Boosted Board founders are applying their experience in the high quality electric skateboard company to a new startup, Skip, in an attempt to compete with other more established dockless electric scooter companies.
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