Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
June 10, 2015 02:00 AM

Commuters could 'float' over that last mile on plastic scooter

Steve Toloken
Assistant Managing Editor
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    BASF SE
    About 80 percent of the Floatility scooter would be made of plastics and composites rather than metal.

    GUANGZHOU, CHINA — Oliver Risse is a longtime fan of the “shared economy,” and because of a new business he's started in urban transportation, he's become a fan of plastics.

    The Singapore-based entrepreneur and his start-up company Floatility GmbH are making heavy use of plastic composites for a lightweight electric scooter, for a business they plan similar to urban bike sharing, with hundreds of rental scooters available for short trips around cities.

    Its three-wheeled scooter, dubbed the e-floater, was featured at the Chinaplas trade fair in Guangzhou in late May, where Risse spoke at design events organized by German plastics maker BASF SE. Risse said BASF played a major technical role in the scooter's development.

    In an interview at Chinaplas, he said most scooters have metal bodies but Floatility took a look at plastics and composites after a manufacturing partner in Indonesia connected him with BASF.

    More than 80 percent of the e-floater is now made from composites and plastics.

    Risse, founder and CEO of Floatility, said plastics made sense because the company wanted “something that from a design standpoint that looks very different” and that would appeal to commuters, both for looks and safety.

    “Almost all other vehicles you find on the market are aluminum or [another] metal,” he said. “Weight is a very important factor to us, and also convenience. The composite technologies … are super nice actually, from a stability point of view, a durability point of view, and also from an aesthetics point of view. There's a lot of design freedom.”

    Floatility started in 2013 in Hamburg, Germany, and the seven-person company is now on its sixth prototype version of the scooter.

    Plastics, including various grades of glass-fiber reinforced nylon for structural parts and thermoplastic polyurethane for tires and handlebars, play a key role in making the vehicle lighter. The scooter weighs about 26 pounds, or half the weight of most bikes.

    Risse said it folds up and its battery makes it easier to get around without the exertion of a bike ride, potential advantages for commuters or workers crossing large factories or corporate campuses.

    “Over a thousand [bike sharing] systems are already installed, large-scale systems, but why do people still pedal?” he said. “In tropical countries like Singapore, nobody wants to pedal. That's why we say ‘Look, we need to get something that's the next generation of technology, that's purely electric, people stand on it, go a short distance to go from A to B.'”

    Smart city development

    BASF SE

    Risse

    He argues that the scooter fits into the “three major pillars in smart city development:” electric transportation, mobility on demand and a sharing economy.

    “The most important factor is the sharing economy,” he said. “Our business model is not to sell a single product. We are selling a network solution. The vehicle itself communicates in real terms with a server, so we can offer a sharing economy model. It's the next generation of bicycle sharing.”

    To illustrate the potential he sees, Risse points to figures from a 2-year-old New York company, Citi Bike, which has had more than 10 million trips: “That means people have replaced the car trips with bicycles, which is an awesome figure.”

    Risse, who has a background in venture capital financing in the clean tech industry, including as former chief operating officer of Singapore-based Asia Clean Tech Capital Pte. Ltd., said Floatility needs more fundraising to fully launch. But he said there is a lot of interest in “last mile” urban transit.

    “The smart city/smart mobility space is, generally spoken, very hot,” he said. “If we can [prove] that we solve the last mile transport problem, then we're sure that we will be closing the funding round relatively quickly.”

    Putting aside big-picture visions of urban planning and finance hurdles, the company now is handling a lot of day-to-day challenges, like ramping up for production.

    It plans to finish tooling and begin production, and then start operational trials in Singapore, where it has an office, and in northern Europe, to gauge performance in extreme weather conditions, Risse said.

    Supplier collaboration

    Manufacturing will be done in Indonesia, by the Tangerang-based firm ID-IC & Partners, a group of companies that are involved in injection molding, mold building and product development.

    The scooter requires technical knowledge of injection molding with glass fiber-reinforced nylon, and keeping manufacturing precise enough for smooth assembly, given challenges with deformation and shrinkage in working with plastic composites, said ID-IC CEO Norbert Fechter, in an email interview.

    ID-IC, which has 540 employees and about 40 injection machines, has worked with BASF for about two decades and connected Floatility to the German materials maker, Fechter said.

    That connection turned out to be useful for Risse, who readily admits he's not a plastics expert, nor particularly a manufacturing expert.

    Instead, he described Floatility's plan as a melding of software with scooters, and mixing in plastic composites, to find a new niche in urban transit.

    “We're maybe the first company who tries a smartphone enabled last-mile electric vehicle with advanced composite materials, to our knowledge this is unique,” he said. “We assume that the user experience while floating through the city is very smooth and easy. Much softer than with a metal chassis.”

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    MAPP survey shows ‘struggling' plastics processing sector
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified