Smart and Mini scooters

Both Smart and Mini will have electric scooter concepts at the Paris Motor Show. That’s either a huge coincidence, or they’ve been keeping a very close eye on each other’s activities. Of course it must be the former, for the benefit of the lawyers.



Smart



Smart’s offering is called the escooter which, like the Smart fortwo car, features a metal frame with interchangeable plastic body panels.

Power comes from a 5 bhp (4 kW / 5 PS) rear hub-mounted motor, driven by a 48-volt lithium-ion battery pack. That’s enough to propel the escooter up to 28 mph (45 km/h), which is on a par with 50 cc petrol scooters and should be fine for most city centre trips. Tackling anything further afield might be a bit ambitious, although Smart reckons it’ll have a range of around 60 miles (100 km).



Charging takes ‘within three to five hours’, which just sounds rather vague. Unlike the Econogo Yogo electric scooter, the escooter doesn’t have a removable battery, which makes recharging awkward unless there’s a convenient kerbside plug-in point to hand.



Stopping ability is clearly one aspect of the escooter that has received a lot of attention. The brakes are linked - which means just one lever controls retardation of both the front and rear wheels - and they come with an anti-lock system, a rarity for scooters.



However, whereas there’s a traditional disc brake for the front wheel, the rear uses the electric motor acting in reverse to slow it down. An added benefit of this arrangement is that braking makes the motor act as a generator, sending extra charge to the battery.



If it ever goes on sale, riders of the escooter will also need to own a smartphone. That’s because putting the phone into a slot on the dashboard deactivates the immobiliser and anti-theft system. Then, when travelling, the phone’s screen becomes the scooter’s instruments, showing speed, battery range and charge level.



A clever idea, but it could all go very wrong the first time it rains and the owner discovers that their smartphone isn’t particularly waterproof.



Mini



Mini is claiming ‘CO2-free mobility’ for its Scooter E Concept. That’s somewhat misleading, unless the electricity used comes from a source that doesn’t produce any carbon dioxide during the generation process. Boringly pedantic, but unfortunately true.

Just like the Smart escooter, the Mini features an electric motor integrated in the rear wheel, combined with a lithium-ion battery. Charging is also via an onboard socket, so any potential buyers would probably have to invest in a few extension leads, too.



Disappointingly, that’s about it for technical information. Seemingly Mini has concentrated more on how its Scooter E Concept looks. Details such as the upright windshield and the round headlight are supposed to evoke the design of Mini cars, although it could be said that the result just ends up resembling a bloated Piaggio Vespa.



In yet another startling coincidence, the Scooter E Concept also makes use of smartphones. Like the Smart escooter, the rider would be expected to slot their phone into the dashboard to enable the bike to start. Once underway, the phone would control music, navigation and communication, using a Bluetooth link to a microphone and speakers in the rider’s helmet.



Doubtless Mini, like Smart, will be waiting to see what kind of reaction its concept gets before deciding whether or not to take it any further. Perhaps parent company BMW’s existing motorcycle operation gives the Mini Scooter E Concept a better chance of making it into production?

Electric bikes ignored?

When the UK government announced earlier this week it was ring-fencing £43 million for Plug-in Car Grants, there was a mostly positive response from the motor industry.

However, the exclusion of electric motorcycles from the scheme has been met with criticism. The Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCI) is not too happy, and it has already contacted the Department for Transport demanding an explanation for the omission.



Quite rightly, the MCI points out that electric bikes beat congestion better than any car and so reduce journey times. Its stance is that the government should therefore be encouraging them, not ignoring them.



There is already a selection of electric motorcycles and scooters available on the market. These include the Econogo Yogo and the Zero range, with more - such as the KTM Freeride - coming soon. In general, these bikes are more expensive than their petrol-powered counterparts, due mainly to the cost of the batteries. Therefore, some cash from the government would help to narrow the price gap.

But maybe the government feels that as two-wheelers usually emit less CO2 and use less fuel than cars, the benefits of getting riders to switch to electric won’t actually be that great?



Or perhaps it’s a question of economics. One of the objectives of the Plug-in Car Grant is to encourage the development and manufacture of low emissions vehicles within the UK.



With the likelihood that the majority of electric bikes (especially scooters) would come from the Far East, the government may have already determined that including motorcycles will be of little advantage to the UK. And after all, why should it spend taxpayers’ money on grants that effectively subsidise imported products?

Econogo Yogo scooter

Electric scooters are nothing new, and on the face of it they’re an environmentally friendly way of getting around. But they’re not much use if you live in an upper storey apartment and don’t fancy dangling extension cables out of the window to recharge it, or the commute to and from work is just that bit further than the battery’s range.



There’s now a solution for UK buyers: The Econogo Yogo. Its makers claim it’s the first production scooter to feature a removable lithium battery, which means users can simply lift it out and take it indoors to recharge.

In standard specification, the Yogo manages 30 mph, although the slightly more powerful ‘S’ version will reach 40 mph. Both have a range of 22 miles, with recharging taking just one hour. That range can easily be doubled, because the Yogo has space on board for a second battery - the rider just needs to remember to flick a switch to transfer between batteries when one is getting low on charge.



Arguably, the environmental benefits of electric scooters like the Yogo are debateable if the electricity is being generated from fossil fuels in the first place.  Then there’s the question of the energy and resources needed to produce those lithium batteries, as well as the issues around end of life disposal or recycling.



However, with petrol now costing around £1.20 per litre (a staggering £5.46 per gallon), the motive to go electric might increasingly become purely economic.



Both versions of the Econogo Yogo are priced at £1,999.