Electric scooters come in handy for people to move around and are common in many cities and large industrial areas. One of the major issues with the traditional two-wheel electric vehicles in pedestrian environments is the risk of accidents. In several areas, such as colleges, two-wheel electric scooters are banned.
Now, Toyota has come up with a new scooter that is built to be used in walking areas. The three-wheel electric scooter is dubbed C+walkT. The company says it’s a standing-type model that slots into the C+ Walk walking-area mobility series. The scooter will be available for purchase via the company’s car dealership or at rental and leasing locations as of October 1.
Useful for people with walking difficulties
The three-wheel electric scooter has a low and flat base that’s only 150 millimeters off the ground. The low base helps to get on and off the vehicle fairly easily. The company built the electric vehicle for comfortable and safe use in walking areas and to facilitate site-by-side travel and communications with pedestrians around it.
The design of the scooter allows it eats up a similar amount of space as a single person and travels at typical human walking speeds. To avoid accidents, if the rider is distracted, the scooter comes equipped with collision and obstacle avoidance functions. Toyota envisions the scooter being usable by those who have difficulty walking or people who have to cover long distances walking, security personnel for instance.
Expensive yet effective vehicle
The new electric scooter uses a brushless DC motor and is backed by a lithium-ion battery. Only the front wheel of the scooter gets power from the battery. The scooter is priced between ¥341,000 and ¥354,200 in Japan, which is over $3,000 in the US. The range of the scooter is still unknown.
Besides, Rolls-Royce has also developed an all-electric aircraft called Spirit of Innovation. The aircraft took its first flight recently and it appears futuristic. The sleek single-seater prop plane comes with a form factor similar to the racing planes from the 1930s. It took off from the UK Ministry of Defense’s Boscombe Down site.
