It’s Just a Concept, Though
The Spanish automaker SEAT has now created an electric scooter. The bike was unveiled at EICMA, and I just had a chance to really take a look at it. The bike is called the e-Scooter Concept, and it’s one part of the car company’s urban mobility plan.
SEAT has a small electric car that it wants to use in a car-sharing program, some small kick-scooters and this e-Scooter it’s working on. The scooter is completely electric and uses a regular wall plug to be charged up. The battery can be slid out of the scooter and there are little wheels that allow you to roll it around like a piece of luggage. From there you can take the battery with you and plug it in no matter where you go.
It’s a pretty smart solution and one that I think some other companies should take note of. SEAT is far from the first company to come up with a removable battery, but having the ability to roll it in with you instead of carrying it is a smart move. The scooter is also supposed to interface easily with your smartphone and the company will have some connected apps. This could help keep track of range, charge times and more. Seeing as how this is just a concept, there’s still a lot of questions when it comes to performance, range, and more, but it’s an interesting bike nonetheless.
A handsome looking machine. In the US it is not easy to find electric scooters, but they would be perfect for city use, and a solid niche in the EV market. E-motorcycles are in a tough position – the expectation is long range and the energy density of batteries is not there. For cars, the issue is resolved apart from residual range anxiety.
For scooters and e-bikes – 40 -50 miles is fine as the expectation is that they will be for shorter runs and urban use. I think that major company bringing a well designed scooter to the US market will do very well.