Electric personal mobility devices (boards, bikes, hoverboards, etc.) are absolutely cool. They’re an eco-friendly way to travel around town without tiring yourself out too much. But, often you will have to buy into a particular board/bike’s entire ecosystem which includes getting that particular brand’s skateboard/bike.
That can be a costly investment especially if you’re someone who already has a regular board/bike. Ideally, you’d want an electric motor that you can strap onto your existing board/bike to electrify it.
Well, that’s where Eon comes in.
Eon, in a nutshell, is an electric strap-on powertrain that can turn your regular skateboard into an electric skateboard. Designed by Unlimited Engineering, Eon’s motors are supposed to fit almost any board rather painlessly. All you have to do is switch out your regular wheels with the motorised ones, slap on the battery pack and you’re good to go.
Eon says that one of the best things about their motor is that it’s low-drag so you won’t notice that there’s a motor there when pushing.
The motor can get you up to speeds of 35km/h with a maximum range of 24km on a single charge. Additionally, the motors also have regenerative braking which can charge the batteries powering the motor automatically as you slow down, increasing the range by about 10%.
If you plan on making really long journeys, the batteries are also swappable so you can just unplug and slap on a fresh pack when you run out. Users control the motor with a handheld remote, but the power delivery and response can be tweaked via the dedicated app.
For those who don’t already have a board, Eon also sells complete boards that vary between classic stiff boards, flexible longboards and boards with a kick-tail.
Right now, the Eon boards are available on Kickstarter with pledges starting at EUR25. If you want a board, you will have to pony up a minimum of EUR369 (around RM1,654) for the SOLO starter kit and delivery is estimated to be around March of next year.
Eon has already more than doubled their pledge goal of EUR100,000, hitting EUR241,184 with 10 days to go. For more information, check out their page on the crowd-funding site.
