Inokim electric scooters, designed by nimrod riccardo sapir, are sold around the world as a smart green solution for micro mobility in large cities.
Behind the buzz around driverless vehicles, electric cars and ride-sharing apps, inokim sensed the need for a light urban mobility alternative: a folding electric scooter.
Inokim scooters, launched in 2009 under the brand MyWay, were the green brainchild of award-inokim winning product designer-engineer-entrepreneur Nimrod Riccardo Sapir.
Kfir Ben-Shooshan read about Sapir’s 12-kg folding e-scooters on a trip home to Israel from Miami, where he’d settled and had built a chain of clothing stores. On his business travels, he experienced terrible traffic tie-ups getting from airports to city centers, and he felt Sapir’s invention could provide an answer.
After contacting Sapir, Ben-Shooshan learned that the scooter’s manufacturer-marketer already had a short-term contract with a seller abroad. But sales were sluggish.
A few years ago, when Ben-Shooshan was about to take his girlfriend on vacation to Thailand to propose marriage, the company sent him a business proposal. From Thailand, he flew to Shanghai for 24 hours and clinched a contract.
Moving back to Israel, Ben-Shooshan revamped the sales strategy, setting up five stores in high-end locations. Another 10 locations are planned in the next year.
“When I grew the business so successfully in Israel, the company offered me shares, so now I own 30 percent of the business and we sell through franchises all over the world,” says Ben-Shooshan.
(“Inokim” means “speed” in Japanese.)
Inokim also has franchises in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Romania, Russia and, Us, and now in the Uk.
- “Before I came in, only 10,000 units had been sold all over the world,” from his Tel Aviv office. “Last year we surpassed 100,000 units.Ben-Shooshan says
“We want to be in every big city in the world, focusing on business people for transportation in downtown areas. You can carry it with you on the train or bus, or you can put it in your trunk and park your car outside the city for far less.”
Sapir has won several industry awards as the first electric scooter designer to overcome the tradeoff between performance and weight: Inokim scooters are not only attractive and robust but also quick-folding and lightweight.
“That’s why we stand out,” he says
Inokim scooters run on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries like those used in electric and hybrid cars. It takes five to six hours to fully charge an empty battery.
5 models are on the market, and one e-bike with a very special desgin.
The newest Quick4 model comes with a 600w motor, and 52V 16Ah Battery, and can go up to 64km in one single charge.
“When I first came up with the idea for a folding electric scooter, I was looking for investors and they wanted me to show them the market. I couldn’t, because it didn’t exist,” Sapir says. have.
Ben-Shooshan says - most of the copycats simply put an electric motor onto a children’s scooter, using components from different manufacturers. “Our factory in Shaghai makes every component from wheels to batteries,”