The Tallinn-based company, Comodule, has launched its electric scooter called Tuul – the first electric scooter developed and manufactured in Estonia.
Comodule’s story started off when three founders of the company – Kristjan Maruste, Teet Praks and Heigo Varik – were still students at the Tallinn University of Technology and came together for a project called Formula Student. In the student project, they developed and built fully electric racing cars and competed against other universities around the world.
In 2014, the three men founded Comodule as an internet of things and connectivity provider for micromobility, connecting light electric vehicles to the internet. Since then, the company claims to have connected more than 200,000 electric scooters worldwide – and now decided to launch their own scooter brand, Tuul (“Wind” in English).
Largely recyclable
“During the boom of shared e-scooters in 2019, we saw very closely how poorly the scooters were made, and this resulted in bad unit economics for our customers. Although the scooters ran on clean energy, there was nothing clean about the way they were being built and recycled,” Kristjan Maruste, the CEO of the company, said in a statement.
“Since our team is mostly engineers, with a background in building electric racing cars, we decided to design, build and develop the most durable scooter with all the IoT capabilities already built in. As a company, we have made the shift from not only providing connectivity for micromobility, but to a company that actually makes micromobility”.
The Tuul e-scooter is built with steel and according to the company, is over 90% recyclable after its lifetime of five years is over. “Only clean energy is used to build it and it is manufactured from 42% recycled materials,” Comodule said.
“Like the Volvo”
The Tuul scooter has a range of 40 kilometres (25 miles) and according to the company, its top speed and safety equipment can be customised to local regulations. “It is equipped with large pneumatic tires, a wider standing area, wider handlebar and lower centre of gravity for more comfort and stability especially in the rain and on uneven terrain,” the company said. “As with different car brands, e-scooters have different levels of quality and comfort. Our scooter is like the Volvo of the car industry – safe and durable,” Maruste added.
The Tuul scooter is not yet available for other markets – Comodule says its goal is to quickly test it in a smaller market – such as Estonia – so that it will be ready to scale when the global situation has normalised after the coronavirus pandemic.
Cover: The Tuul e-scooters. Images courtesy of Comodule.
