By Joelle Metcalfe
A Japanese start-up company that focuses on light, electric vehicles aims to change the way millions of Asians get around, reinventing the much-loved, seemingly ubiquitous scooter into one that runs on electric power and is hooked into handy programs that run on smartphones. If the plan succeeds, some of Southeast Asia’s most polluted and traffic-bound cities could end up cleaner and quieter as a result.
On Wednesday, Terra Motors, founded in 2010 with engineers from some of Japan’s leading auto makers and backing from former top executives of companies like Apple Inc., Google Japan and Sony Corp. 6758.TO -0.46%, introduced what it calls the world’s first mass-production smart-phone-synchronized electric scooter.
The A4000i, has two seats, a rechargeable battery and a compartment on the dashboard to connect an iPhone. Initially, a limited number of 2,000 will go on sale in Japan at the end of 2013 for Y450,000 ($4,500) each.
However, the company’s founder and chief executive, Toru Tokushige–himself a veteran of California’s Silicon Valley start-up scene–has bigger plans. He wants to sell the bike mainly in Asia, which accounts for 80% of world’s two-wheeled motorized vehicle market. Southeast Asia in particular, he points out, is a region where gasoline-powered scooters have added to some very serious pollution problems.
“We took into consideration what the middle class in emerging Asian nations wants. What are they spending their money on? Scooters and smart phones,” Mr. Tokushige said at a press conference. “We plan to sell 100,000 units of our electric-powered smartphone-synchronizing scooters all over the world by 2015,” he added.
Mr. Tokushige said the market in Southeast Asia is ripe, as demand for lower-cost scooters from China has tapered off. According to the company’s own research, sales of Chinese electric scooters in Vietnam peaked in 2008 at over 120,000 vehicles, but dropped to under 20,000 in 2009, almost disappearing from the market.
Terra Motors has already developed a three-wheeled vehicle based on the “tuk-tuk,” a popular form of for-hire transport in Thailand and and the Philippines. The company is currently involved in a project to replace 100,000 gas-powered tuk-tuks in the Philippines with sleek, futuristic electric ones by 2016 through a lease-to-own plan for transport businesses.
The two-wheeler introduced Wednesday can run up to 65 kilometers an hour, and comes equipped with a removable lithium ion battery that runs for about 52 kilometers, and can be fully recharged in about 4.5 hours. The company says the approximately Y15 it costs to charge the battery is about 90% less than a tank of gas for a regular scooter at around Y140.
An iPhone on the dashboard can display energy consumption, mileage and speed. Other applications still being developed may offer global positioning functions that could allow for the collection of large amounts of data about the vehicle user.
Eventually, Terra Motors aims to be able to upload data on mileage and destinations to a “cloud” database. This could then be transferred to traffic authorities to assess congestion in certain areas and assist in urban planning. Such data may also be used to create tailored advertisements and recommendations based on where the driver goes.
A Japanese start-up company that focuses on light, electric vehicles aims to change the way millions of Asians get around, reinventing the much-loved, seemingly ubiquitous scooter into one that runs on electric power and is hooked into handy programs that run on smartphones. If the plan succeeds, some of Southeast Asia’s most polluted and traffic-bound cities could end up cleaner and quieter as a result.
The A4000i, has two seats, a rechargeable battery and a compartment on the dashboard to connect an iPhone. Initially, a limited number of 2,000 will go on sale in Japan at the end of 2013 for Y450,000 ($4,500) each.
However, the company’s founder and chief executive, Toru Tokushige–himself a veteran of California’s Silicon Valley start-up scene–has bigger plans. He wants to sell the bike mainly in Asia, which accounts for 80% of world’s two-wheeled motorized vehicle market. Southeast Asia in particular, he points out, is a region where gasoline-powered scooters have added to some very serious pollution problems.
“We took into consideration what the middle class in emerging Asian nations wants. What are they spending their money on? Scooters and smart phones,” Mr. Tokushige said at a press conference. “We plan to sell 100,000 units of our electric-powered smartphone-synchronizing scooters all over the world by 2015,” he added.
Mr. Tokushige said the market in Southeast Asia is ripe, as demand for lower-cost scooters from China has tapered off. According to the company’s own research, sales of Chinese electric scooters in Vietnam peaked in 2008 at over 120,000 vehicles, but dropped to under 20,000 in 2009, almost disappearing from the market.
Terra Motors has already developed a three-wheeled vehicle based on the “tuk-tuk,” a popular form of for-hire transport in Thailand and and the Philippines. The company is currently involved in a project to replace 100,000 gas-powered tuk-tuks in the Philippines with sleek, futuristic electric ones by 2016 through a lease-to-own plan for transport businesses.
The two-wheeler introduced Wednesday can run up to 65 kilometers an hour, and comes equipped with a removable lithium ion battery that runs for about 52 kilometers, and can be fully recharged in about 4.5 hours. The company says the approximately Y15 it costs to charge the battery is about 90% less than a tank of gas for a regular scooter at around Y140.
An iPhone on the dashboard can display energy consumption, mileage and speed. Other applications still being developed may offer global positioning functions that could allow for the collection of large amounts of data about the vehicle user.
Eventually, Terra Motors aims to be able to upload data on mileage and destinations to a “cloud” database. This could then be transferred to traffic authorities to assess congestion in certain areas and assist in urban planning. Such data may also be used to create tailored advertisements and recommendations based on where the driver goes.
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