Micromobility is gaining momentum
By Steve Price
On August 24, Janet Byron and I went to Alameda Point in Alameda, California, to attend Electrify Expo, a huge expo for electric mobility on 10 to 12 acres of the former naval air base. The Electrify Expo is a traveling road show of e-mobility that visits eight U.S. cities each year, including Chicago, New York, Dallas, Phoenix, and Orlando.
Although automobile exhibitors had the biggest footprint, a surprisingly large area was dedicated to e-bikes, e-mopeds, e-scooters, e-trikes, electric skateboards, and even electric unicycles! Exhibitors offered free test rides of their products. The number of attendees testing micromobility vehicles was as great or greater than those trying out cars, although you wouldn’t guess that looking at the Electrify Expo website, which overwhelmingly is dedicated to electric cars and trucks.
Although the Electrify Expo led visitors into the event through electric car displays, toward the back was a large exposition of micromobility.
We were impressed with how many attendees there were, with a diverse crowd and people of all ages. This puts to the lie that the future will remain with gas-powered cars. Janet and I test rode Le Mond e-bikes, HMP Bikes e-mopeds, and a small electric Dashmoto tricycle scooter; the latter can turn around in an elevator, take you shopping in a grocery store (4 mph), or ride in the neighborhood (up to 8 and 18 mph). The LeMond e-bike we rode weighed only 27 pounds, and we were told that the HMP mopeds can easily handle climbing our East Bay hills, although there was no way to test this assertion at the Expo.
Various sizes of mopeds were available for test riding.
We’re not usually pickup truck fans, because their growing sizes and high hoods make them dangerous to pedestrians and bicycle riders. But we were excited by the Telo truck. Most electric pickup trucks are not abandoning the big front end in spite of the fact that there is no engine there. They are instead using it as a modest forward trunk — a “frunk.” The Telo gets rid of the front end entirely, dramatically increasing the driver’s visibility of the street, a great safety improvement for pedestrians and bicycle riders.
Most electric cars and trucks don’t need large front ends since there are no engines there. Most manufacturers are repurposing the “frunk” for a little extra storage, like storing bottles of water in the inset photo. The Telo truck does away with the front end to give the driver a clear view of the street and other street users.
It was exhilarating to see the large numbers of people of all ages trying out e-mobility vehicles. The current federal government is trying to claw back funding for electric mobility, but the Expo made it clear how naive the administration is about the future of travel.
We both test rode a small tricycle scooter: lightweight (carbon fiber), foldable, and capable of going 4 to 18 mph.