A new electric scooter with smartphone connectivity – claimed to be the world’s first – is to be launched in the European market by Japan’s Terra Motors Corporation.
The company, which specialises in electric two- and three-wheelers, will initially sell the A4000i in Italy in partnership with Spesso Srl. Terra Motors plans to enter into distributor agreements in a further three to five European countries within the year.
Commenting on the company’s entry into Europe with the A4000i, Terra Motors’ chief executive Toru Tokushige said: “There has already been a concept model of electric motorcycles with smartphones. However, when it comes to e-scooters produced by mass production, there has been no e-scooter and A4000i is the world-first mass production model.”
Smartphone connection with the powertrain of the A4000i will enable Terra Motors to collect a range of data in a cloud database, including electricity consumption while driving, the state of charge, and driving behaviour such as trip duration and max/min/average speed.
With the help of data collected from each electric scooter, the manufacturer intends to deliver new big data-based services in the future. For example, by collecting and analysing the location data of users, new services such as personalised advertisements could be introduced.
Terra Motors believes that the build quality, high performance and long battery life of its motorcycles makes them stand out from the competition. The company claims that its lithium battery lasts around five times longer than those of Chinese electric bikes in the Asian market.
Including the Asian market, Terra Motors has a goal of delivering 100,000 units by the end of 2015 and says that it is aiming for the same position in the electric two-wheeler industry as Tesla Motors enjoys in the electric automotive industry.
In Italy, Spesso is also optimistic about the prospects for the brand. Its EV division manager, Francesco Possio, said: “We believe that other than introducing cost-effective and pollution free vehicles, the quality of Terra Motors’ products will make the difference in this evolving industry, finally providing a quality product that can be a real game changer in urban transportation.”
Image: Terra Motors
