Fossil Free Friday - Electric Scooters

Since Grizz, Mendi, Fester, the Loi-Yer, Double K, and Melissa are headed to the Texas United Scooter Rally this weekend, it seemed like a great day to throw a few electric scooters up for Fossil Free Friday.

Grizz' red Vespa and the Mesquite Hugger E-Vespa

  

Earlier this week, Derek Markham posted about a new electric German scooter. (Or should that be "German electric scooter"? Where's Noam when I need him.)

Derek Markham article on TreeHugger

I'm always excited when I run across a new electric scooter so I popped on over and found a pretty standard little scooter that

• looks a whole lot like a 2006 Yamaha Vino
• has a 28mph top speed
• 30 miles of range
• is available only in Europe. Snagit.

 But, then I remembered that we have a similar scooter available over here. The Genze 2.0.

And the Genze may not be all retro-Yamaha stylish, but it's got a nice list of virtues:

• It's vastly slightly faster (30mph!)
• It has the same range - 30 miles
• No insane Teutonic import tariff -  it's made, or at least assembled, in Ann Arbor Michigan!
• It has a removable battery pack, too!
• You can buy one (in Texas) for less than $3000!
• And, it's a 2-wheeled pickup truck! (You know me and electric pickups.)

(A pretty small pickup truck)

The pickup bed even inspired a weekly contest!

So there you have it - two emission-free electric scooters to help you get off the gas, keep it in the ground, clear the air, and generally make the world a less stinky place.

May you live in a less stinky place that you helped to create!

PS. In case the Genze 2.0 is not your thing, be sure to check out the Fido (my favorite), the Boxx, and the Monday Motorbike. - three very different approaches to electric scooters.

Mesquite Hugger's Favorite Electric Scooters (in the US) (Updated 3-2016)

I've been listening to a band called "Milky Chance" lately. They snuck into my awareness through a few soundtracks and a little satellite radio in JG's car, so I looked them up. The first Milky Chance video I saw hooked me easily - they were riding around on funky German scooters, Schwalbes. And that got me to thinking about my favorite Schwalbe - the e-Schwalbe that was introduced a few years back. It's one of those forbidden fruit things for me. It's a very cool vintage scooter that sits right at the top (with Fido) of desirable, factory-built, electric scooters - but they are not sold on this side of the Atlantic (and would be out of my budget if they did.) Yep, I am an incurable scooterholic.

And that got me thinking of desirable, factory-built, electric scooters that are available in the US. I made a quick list. Then I realized that many on my list are still not quite available. So the list kept changing.

So here's the available list:

 

ZEV - (various models)

Interesting bikes - they look cheap and their designs borrow very heavily from famous Japanese gas-powered scooters, but I have read many positive reviews. They definitely have the highest ranges and speeds I have ever seen listed for production electric scooters. (I have recently read several bad reviews for ZEV and their speed/range claims)

Daymak Beast (Check out the expanded Beast offerings)

This one skirts the old scooter/moped/electric bike line pretty heavily, but it's low priced, rugged, based in Canada, and looks like a blast to ride. To Daymak's credit, they have followed through on their Kickstarter promises beautifully. Bonus points for a solar panel on the battery pack!

 

Govecs

The only one on this list that I have seen in person. The Govecs scooters originate from a German company that obviously has high quality standards. Not cheap, but I think this one may be worth the money if you are in it for the long green haul. (I linked to the Austin electric scooter shop where I saw the Govecs.)

Boxx Scooter

At first glance I wanted one and I have not gotten over it. I would sticker it up like an Apple product and tell people that it came from Steve Jobs' personal collection. ;-) Seriously, though, it has impressive specs and it's readily available. Bonus points for high geek factor!

Coming Soon

 

Genze (NOW AVAILABLE)

Built by a huge transportation company (Mahindra) with lots of resources for design and manufacturing, this bike looks promising, low-priced, and has more hauling capacity than most two-wheelers - the Genze could fill a lot of needs for the right buyer. They have been selling e-bikes here for a little while, but they are still taking reservations for US sales of the Genze scooter.

 

Bolt M-1 (NOW AVAILABLE)

Currently on an Indiegogo campaign, the Bolt M-1 looks very promising, but it's not yet available. It's American designed and built by some dedicated mopedders. Bonus points for the long-legged white hound photo! (my Sasha approves!)

Fido

My dream American electric scooter - built by American scooterists who have been dedicated to the cause for many years now. They are getting close to production in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but they are not quite there yet. Bonus points for company dog motif!

Not Coming at All

e-Schwalbe (Turn on the translator)

A vintage bike with modern running gear, impressive performance, and German engineering. Sigh...They are not sold here and it does not look like there are any plans to do so in the future, snagit!

May you scooter dorks (like me) enjoy knowing what's out there to choose from and may you find something non-polluting to get you around!

Electric Moped: Somebody built our napkin-sketch dream bike!

I drink coffee with the Scooter Workshop Night guys on most days. Over coffee we have built many dream vehicles. Mind you, we don't actually build much, but we do plan lots of builds on napkins and envelopes and tabletops. One of my favorite dream builds has been the unholy marriage of a two-stroke European moped with an electric motorcycle powertrain. And I have gotten close to the dream. I did build a Velosolex with a hubmotor for a good friend. (Hi, JG!) And I did purchase the running gear out of an early Zero motorcycle. (I am terrible at minimalism.) And that running gear has dustily resided in a box since it came into my possession. (The current plan is to install that motor in one of the ElectroPigeons. But there's a lot of tuition and taxes to pay first. So, I will keep designing on napkins.)

Not this Magnum,

nor this Magnum,

this Magnum!

Back to the moped plan. My favorite mopeds are the top-tank models, the ones that look like undergrown motorcycles rather than overgrown bicycles. One of the coolest and most adaptable is the Puch Magnum. I have kept an eye open for a cheap Magnum for years. But I never actually found one nearby.

Yesterday on Autoblog Green, the Bolt Motorbike showed up. And I recognized it from my coffee napkin sketches. Some intelligent and ambitious mopedders (Mopedders seldom get called either of those words.) must have made the same sketch. Lighter than a motorcycle, sturdier than a bike, and powerful enough to climb San Francisco hills with ease - the Bolt is a very cool bike, and it appear to have a Puch Magnum frame.

Check out that ultra-cool bolt logo!

 

Lots of nifty features and a pretty impressive range - 30-50 mile depending on your power setting of choice. I am surprised to see such a low-voltage battery pack, but it looks like the Bolt crew invested their money in amp-hours rather than volts - a good way to increase range. The price is not far away from what it would take for you to build one if you had the time, the tools, the skills, and the ambition.

 

It is definitlely a cool machine, and at $5000 for a turn-key American-built electric moped, you could do a lot worse. (I am now picturing my Mesquite Hugger journalistic dream - the opportunity to have a head-to-head-to-head comparison: Fido vs. Boxx vs.Bolt. I would be in blogger heaven!

 

May your napkin sketches become reality and make the world a better place!

The Boxx Electric Scooter Lives!!!(?)

One of the frustrations of being an electro-dork like me is the steadily waning excitement of watching a new vehicle go from protoype to (wait for months or even years) actual production and public availability. Lots of those things never materialize (Brooklyn Motorized) or almost materialize (Copenhagen Wheel) or materialize only to those who live in select counties just south of San Francisco (it's a long list) or something like that.

I first became aware of the Boxx Scooter in December of 2011. I wanted one! Who among you has never fantasized about stealing a Macintosh computer, converting it into a 2-wheel-drive electric scooter, and zipping around town on it? (Really? Just me and Keith?) Over the years since then, the Boxx has popped up on the radar here and there, but I have never heard of one being spotted in the suburban wilds. And I have to admit, my enthusiasm for it has waned. It's a cool machine to be sure, but it never really seemed to materialize and the website has barely changed over the years.

Imagine my surprise today when a Boxx Scooter ad showed up on the local Craigslist:

You can check it out for yourself here:

Boxx - The 1 meter vehicle

I want the Boxx M (54mph!!!) at the Boxx E price ($2997 - delivered!), but the one in the middle looks very Goldilocksian for my needs - just right. I'll take mine in blue.

May you be the dork who enjoys the ride greenly!