The Micromobility America 2023 event was held in San Francisco Bay on October 19-20, 2023. Micromobility America (MMA) is the world’s largest conference for small vehicles and is an immersive, two-day celebration of small electric vehicles and their power to radically reshape the world’s cities.
This year, Tomorrow Lab Partner Theodore Ullrich was a speaker and exhibitor at MMA, representing Plus Rides Inc., a Tomorrow Lab spinout company building electric scooters that roll, fold, charge, track, and stow better. See more of the story of the Plus Rides scooter development process here.
What Was The Event Like?
The MMA event was held at the Craneway Pavilion in Richmond, CA, across the bay from the city of San Francisco. This impressive glass hanger pavilion was used as the event venue for the event which played host to dozens of demonstration booths from Bike, eBike, eScooter, and eMotorcycle companies from around the world including Plus Rides. There were also numerous industry partner organizations giving talks and panel discussions in front of hundreds of guests from the public who visited the pavilion during the two day event.
Plus Rides’ participation in the event included showcasing our fourth-generation scooter electric samples including a demo tent for guests to checkout and test ride our products! By the end of the event, we had more than 4 dozen test riders and received positive feedback about our product which exceeded all expectations. During several customer discovery conversations, we also validated the demand for well-designed micro-mobility fleet solutions in our target markets including hotels, corporate & university campuses, and residential buildings.
Meeting the Creator of Micromobility America
One of the personal highlights of the event was meeting Horace Dediu, the creator of the Micromobiltiy America event. See his bio here. Horace took a test ride on the Plus Rides Scooter and expressed his interest in the product’s unique features, such as air travel suitability. Horace is a Romanian-American industry analyst with a focus on mobile technology and micromobility. He is the founder of the Micromobility Podcast and even coined the term “micromobility” to describe shared vehicles weighing less than 1000 kg. Horace also coined the term “Modicum of Transport” or MOT, a new measure of efficiency for mobility products. Link to MOT article.
One MOT is defined as 0.1kWh/kgkm (or 10kWh/100kg*km). In more basic terms, one MOT is the nominal energy cost of transporting one person one kilometer. This is a critical metric because it unifies the concepts of energy and emissions for transportation products. In doing so, the MOT allows the industry to see that not all zero emission transportation options are the same from an energy efficiency standpoint. When comparing trains, cars, bikes, scooters and more, it turns out that electric kick scooters are currently one of the most efficient ways to move a human being – even more energy efficient than walking! (You can equate calories to watts to do this comparison).
Standout Mobility Brands
One of the segments of the Micromobility America event involved startup pitches from mobility brands and products, including one from Theodore Ullrich. Plus Rides’ received recognition with a “special mention” and each of the judges expressed loving all the product’s design features and wanting a Plus Rides scooter for their own! Regarding our business model, the judges’ suggestion was to focus on D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) rather than B2B (Business-to-Business). We are taking this into consideration with our next steps in building the business.
Aside from Plus Rides’s electric scooters, some standout products from the event included Voltaire, a French-based electric bike series, and Swifty, a new concept on a larger format kick scooter which was also the startup pitch award winner. See more about these products including Plus Rides in this product review video. (Skip to 2:40 to see Plus Rides in action!)
Overall, the Micromobility America 2023 event in the SF Bay was a big success, and we’re looking forward to attending again in future years! Thanks again to the hosts of the event for making it a special experience and for continuing to celebrate the power of small electric vehicles to radically reshape our cities.
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