Gas-powered scooters, much like fine wines, thin cigarettes and fresh baguettes, are one of those quintessentially European sights. But now that might be changing (for scooters, at least). And EVs could be the cause.
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We’ve seen a steady stream of impressive-looking electric scooter announcements recently, each with a wide range of innovative features and luxury touches. But one thing they all seem to have in common is the sticker shock they leave you with.
Developing a novel electric scooter design isn’t cheap, nor are batteries and motors. But Indian startup 22Motors demonstrates that it is still possible to engineer a functional and effective electric scooter without breaking the bank. Their new Flow scooter is debuting for just $1,125.
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I know what you’re thinking, “A kick scooter?” But stick with me here, because the Xiaomi M365 electric scooter is not your kid’s toy scooter. It’s a fully fledged personal electric vehicle capable of traveling at 15.5 mph (25 km/h) with a range of 18.6 miles (30 km). It has integrated headlights and brake lights, regenerative and disc brakes, a thumb throttle for quick acceleration off the line, and to top it all off, it’s just really fun to ride. At just $499, it’s a surprisingly cheap way to replace a car, Uber or public transportation in most cities, or just to toss in your trunk or carry on the bus as a “last mile” solution.
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There’s no doubt that scooters and mopeds are convenient ways to navigate busy cities, solving problems from navigation and parking to pollution. Now, UJET is trying to make them even better, smarter and smaller, not to mention fully electric.
UJET’s new folding electric scooter is a smart connected EV with a number of innovative design features.
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If you’ve walked the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles or San Diego lately, you’ve almost certainly seen electric scooters whizzing by. They are parked randomly on sidewalks, and are well… everywhere.
These dockless electric scooters are the work of three startups, Bird, Spin and LimeBike, and they are even popping up across the US in cities such as Washington D.C. and Austin. As a part of the on-demand economy, riders can rent these electric scooters via a phone app for $1 plus 15 cents per mile, ride them wherever they need to go, then just leave the scooters essentially anywhere for another rider to come along and scoop up.
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Electric scooters are now a very popular form of electric transportation, especially in Asia, and the iconic scooter maker Vespa os now announcing its own entry in the segment with the ‘Vespa Elettrica Concept’, its first electric scooter.
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Paris, the city that pioneered the huge bike share Vélib’ system a decade ago and more recently began offering Small electric cars to rent via its Autolib’ program looks like it will begin offering an in-between electric scooter renting program operated by Cityscoot company. The company is said to offer 1000 of the quiet mopeds around Paris available to anyone over 20 with a moped license…
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After a successful launch in Asia, Gogoro will now try to introduce its electric “Smartscooters” to Europe starting with Amsterdam in early 2016. You can’t buy the Gogoro’s Smartscooter anywhere because they need to be supported by the company’s network of battery swapping stations (picture above).
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