Terra Motors Corporation released a new model of electric scooter available in two versions: A4000i and A4000. The most prominent feature of this new model is a smartphone dock, that allows you to plug your smartphone directly into the scooter’s dashboard (currently only iPhone is supported).
There are several concept models of electric motorcycle with smart phone connection released by other motorcycle manufacturers in the EU. However, Terra Motors claims that its new model will be the world’s first mass produced scooter of this kind. Terra Motors is going to deliver this model mainly to the Asian market. According to the press-release, the company wants to sell 100,000 scooters by the end of 2015.
The smartphone will be used to run several applications that will store all kinds of data (like electricity consumption, remaining battery life, speed and location) to a cloud database. Then, using the smartphone and the data collected from each electric scooter, Terra Motors intends to deliver new big data-based services (and also to show personalized advertisements to scooter owners).
Consumers in Southeast Asia spent some USD 8.75 billion on almost 29 million smartphones in July 2011 – June 2012, translating to 61 and 78 percent growth in volume and value. While smartphones are currently outsold 3-to-1, sales are growing at 78% per year. Since, according to Terra Motors, motorcycles are the main means of transportation in the region, an electric scooter with an access to a reliable geolocation service could be quite successful on this market.
A4000i is powered by an original Terra Motors lithium battery. Life span of the battery is expected to be about 50,000 km (31,000 miles).
