If you live in a city, you won’t need to be told about e-scooters. They’re everywhere, either as by-the-minute rentals or in increasing numbers as privately owned urban transport.
You can’t ignore e-scooters. But if you’re a car owner and especially a car enthusiast, should you care about them? The answer is yes, because the kind of clean “last mile” electric mobility offered by these two-wheelers isn’t just for those who have shunned the motoring life. Ultimately, it might be the thing that helps us keep enjoying our cars.
Believe it or not, the “last mile” phrase was coined back in the days of copper-wire telecommunications technology. It referred to the huge cost of the otherwise-small final part of the private communications chain: getting a landline from the network to the customer’s house.
In more recent times we’ve talked about last-mile in relation to goods delivery: the out-of-proportion financial and environmental cost of getting small items of freight from a major distribution point into a customer’s hands.
Now we’ve started applying the same concept to personal transportation. If you’re travelling into an urban centre, it’s that last mile to your ultimate destination that’s the least efficient by far. Public transport rarely takes you right to the door and, if you’re driving, looking for that elusive parking space creates a whole lot of pollution and congestion. And you probably still don’t end up exactly where you want to be.
That’s where e-scooters come in. They’re portable, they’re zero emissions and they can take you from a peripheral location away from potential congestion points directly to your final destination.
If we’re being honest, some of the technology that’s in higher-end e-scooters will also appeal to automotive enthusiasts. These little machines do have an e-motional component.
The car industry certainly sees e-mobility as an integral part of its future. The swarms of rental e-scooters on city streets are the most visible part of this new transport sector, followed by the brands-to-buy.
But carmakers are also quietly working away on their own e-scooter interpretations. The future looks a lot like your new car having a fully integrated e-scooter mounted in the boot. It’ll charge as you drive and be ready for last-mile transport on any urban journey.
As far back as 2016, Peugeot collaborated with Micro on the e-Kick, which was launched in conjunction with the 3008 SUV and offered electric assistance in sync with the rider’s own efforts. It fitted into a charging dock in the 3008’s boot.
More recently, Hyundai has given a hint of its e-mobility future with the Personal Electric Scooter concept. It’s extremely compact and foldable, boasts rear-drive for better stability (most e-scooters are front-drive) and is capable of being charged in the boot of a vehicle. It can do up to 20km/h, travel about 20km on a charge and it only weighs 7.7kg.
Premium carmakers are already trying to push the boundaries. Audi has created an “e-tron Scooter” set to go on sale this year, which blends the conventional e-scooter concept with that of an electric skateboard.
Riders steer by shifting their weight; the electric power is controlled by a handlebar twist-grip, leaving one hand free to signal.
The e-tron Scooter does up to 20km/h and has a range of 20km (20-20 seems to be the optimum combination for many of these vehicles). It weighs 12kg and can be folded and wheeled along like a trolley. Naturally, it’s also designed to fit in the boot of your Audi e-tron SUV, plugging into a dedicated socket to charge.