… and GM teams up with Segway
It’s called the PUMA, and it’s expected in 2012 as part of a partnership between GM and Segway. Now, I’m sure every blog and newspaper on the planet has written about this, but I just wanted an excuse to post the picture — this thing is cool. It will have a range of up to 60 kilometres and a speed of between 50 and 60 kilometres an hour, so it’s basically a hybrid between an electric scooter, a Segway Human Transporter, and a low-speed vehicle like the kind ZENN offers. Low-speed vehicles have been a niche market, but GM and Segway could bring brand power at a time when municipalities and their citizens are looking for ways to ease congestion and urban pollution. This is ideal for the household that’s looking to ditch the second gas guzzler in exchange for a fuel-efficient urban two-seater.
Hopefully by 2012 Ontario will finally agree to let LSVs on city streets. The PUMA, it should be pointed out, doesn’t appear designed to tolerate Canadian winters. Perhaps an enclosed version is in the works.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
April 7th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Potholes.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Like the segway, I’d say this vehicle has very, very limited usefulness. All transportation media have their advantages and disadvantages–the segway seemed to have far more of the latter than the former. Its size makes it useless in a dense, urban setting, and it’s speed makes it useless in a spread-out suburban or rural one. About the only market I can see for them is suburban mail carriers and mall cops.
This new vehicle seems to overcome some of these things, maybe, but not necessarily any better than existing alternatives: bikes and “smart” cars. Bikes are a lot cheaper and more versatile (you can take it into the subway, and find parking just about anywhere) while even smart cars can be used to haul a certain amount of stuff, which is a capability most people insist on for their purchase of a car.
Of course, variety of choice is a good thing, and surely there are people out there for whom this product offers the right range of benefits. Not me. And I suspect very few other people. I just hope that newly-nationalised GM doesn’t unduly use its influence–again–to align government infrastructure to suit its own, commercial ends.
And speaking of, the “brand power” of these two companies is……what, precisely?
April 8th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
It’s a neat solution to a problem no one has. In dense city cores, there’s transit. Outside of dense city cores, people want to drive heated, enclosed vehicles that can do more than 35 mph. I will say that it would make a hell of a motorized wheelchair, though!
As for permitting these on our roads, I wonder. If our provincial government won’t move a few strands of red tape for Zenn, which is based here, why would they do it for… Oh, I get it now, General Motors.
Here, let me tear up some streetcar tracks while I’m at it…
April 8th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I hope there is a 2012 for GM, let alone the PUMA.
April 8th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
A Sedgway car? Doesn’t seem a practical solution at the price they will be asking for it – over 10 grand, except for rich people looking for the latest novelty. More likely it’s primarily a publicity stunt to generate positive buzz, for the public who are paying their bills through tax money, about how earnest they are to become “green.”
April 8th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Ouch! sorry GM your going to have to do better than this. this is your fundemental problem.
April 9th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Depending on the cost, this would be ideal for Go commuters who drive only 5-10 minutes to get to the station. I’d consider one if they make a weather proof version and the price is right.
April 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
this just could be the best thing GM has come up with in years. Not for NA but overseas.
April 12th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Every time I hear of an electricly powered means of moving people in Ont that does not involve the Zenn which is already producing and selling product, I remind myself that in time I think I I would like to see will hear of how back in the day Ian Clifford offended someone of authority- real or imagined. I believe I will find out the offense will be so serious to have occurred in kindergarten, high school or high tea at the Royal York. I look forward to using the Zenn product as it is for in city driving I really don’t need to go faster or farther when doing my in town duties for my house hold.
Bring on the Zenn
April 13th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
My guess is that GM paid Segway for the privilege of being mentioned in association with this product in the hope that it’d make them look forward-thinking and suitable for more bailout money.
They’d be better off orienting this toward a different market: make sure it’s solid and keep a lid on it for 10 years. Then do a deal with BMW for branding purposes, make sure it has a 5-speaker stereo and air conditioning, and brand it for the boomer market that are too debilitated to drive but don’t want to be seen in an electric wheelchair.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Interesting, and interesting replies, too. But like some posters noted, seemingly impractical. A bicycle, perhaps, would do a similar job, just like you said.
Laurie
ecoki.com
April 15th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Like the segway, this looks like another solution in search of a problem.
I’m not lame, so why would I want to even be seen using either of these things? Or are they mearly toys for the rich and lazy?