A Short History of E-Scooters
E-scooters have become a necessity as a means of transportation for so many, we set out to answer how and when this happened.
By Jack Driver
The Early History
Far from a modern phenomenon, stand up scooters became a sight in cities from New York to Berlin from 1915! The pioneering motorised scooter was released by the Autoped Company of Long Island in 1915.
The Autoped shares many design similarities with modern E-scooters, with a foldable stem that locked to the board to make the vehicle transportable. With the ride and look of a modern E-scooter, the Autoped however, had a 4 stroke 155cc engine, with electric powered versions of the scooter becoming available by 2016.
Lady Florence Norman, a suffragette, on her motor-scooter in 1916, travelling to work at offices in London where she was a supervisor.
The scooters were notably used by New York postal service workers. Soon after the scooters were adopted by petty criminals as a getaway vehicle, easily outmanoeuvring the growing city traffic and crowds on the more nimble machine that could reach up to 22mph! From archival material it was clear the scooters did not have a single target market, with the Eveready Autoped Scooter advertised for men and women in America and later Europe when it was manufactured in Germany and Czechoslovakia.
The Autoped was dismissed by many as a waste of time, however, the marketing material from the company made it clear it was a vehicle of convenience for the masses:
“The Autoped is an ideal short distance conveyance for business or professional men or women to and from their places of business; for women to go shopping or calling; for physicians to make their regular daily calls or to answer hurry calls; for the older children to go about quickly for outing or school; for servants when they are sent on errands; for grocers, druggists and other merchants for quick delivery purposes; for commercial salesman to call on the trade; for employees to ride to and from work; for collectors; repairmen; messengers, and for anybody else who wants to save money, time and energy in going about. All will enjoy the comfort and pleasure of AUTOPEDING.”
The Autoped has been cited by many as been ahead of its time for providing a personal light vehicle. The Autoped went out of production in the USA by 1921, with production continuing until 1922.
The Arrival of Personal Light Electric vehicles (PLEV)
The stand on scooter as an easy convenient means of transportation fleeted in and out of the public psyche for nearly half a century. The notable reemergence of an upright motor powered scooter came in 1985 with the patent for the Go-Ped scooter, when Steve Patmont and his family launched the company. The original scooters were created as a labour of love by Patmont for friends and family. The scooter became a much sort after commodity for quick and easy short distance travel, much the same as what was promised by the Autoped some 50 years earlier!
With Go-Ped reinvigorating the demand for scooters, the subsequent buzz saw the development of new models and other companies throwing their hats in the ring as major competitors.
The Go-Ped ESR range was the first fully electric powered scooter to go into production, building a loyal customer fan base due to the great build quality and reliability of the scooters. Competitors such as the ‘Micro’ scooter became electrified around the same time after the Dutch-Swiss banker Wim Ouboter needed a quick solution to the last mile problem faced by many city dwellers when needing a convenient vehicle to complete short journeys. Ouboter has been credited as reinventing the kick scooter, with the Razor scooter going onto earn “Spring/Summer toy of the year” in 2000.
Ouboter realised the solution for short city journeys could be fulfilled by a scooter or if possible by an e-scooter. He envisaged the scooter as a means of transportation for all rather than simply a child's toy. The cost and quality of batteries in the mid 2000’s made e-scooters expensive and more often than not slow with a low mileage capacity. The emergence of ride-sharing schemes that quickly adopted E-scooters allowed the price to rent a scooter on a minute by minute charge basis accessible for city commuters. The E-scooter share schemes have alleviated a handful of issues in cities including: less pressure on public transport systems, fewer cars in cities and cleaner air through the lack of pollution produced by an E-scooter.
The Modern Take on the Classic Scooter
With the inception of share scheme E-scooters and their general acceptance by governments around the world E-scooters have become far more advanced, eco-friendly and cheaper. The industry advancements have brought about a new wave of privately owned scooters that often far outperform those that are apart of share schemes.
For a more comprehensive view of the state of e-scooter legality in the UK check one of our previous posts “The Changing Legal Status of E-scooters in the UK”.
With fleeting memories and artefacts of generations gone that influenced the current use of scooters and electric scooters, it is clear the adoption of Personal Light Electric vehicles are here to stay.
