Will Ford (F) Spin's Latest E-Bike be Able to Win Customers' Hearts?
Ford’s F micromobility subsidiary — Spin — recently unveiled its first in-house built electric scooter, the Spin S-100T.
The scooter will be first rolled out in Sacramento, CA, next month where Spin is launching a service that will deploy 25 of the new S-100T scooters, along with the existing fleet. Spin projects that S-100Ts will hit other markets in the United States by the end of this year.
The S-100T joins Spin’s existing vehicle portfolio consisting of the original S-100, the three-wheeler S-200 and an S-300 e-bike.
The S-100T is a cutting edge e-scooter, custom designed for sustainability and longevity. This first-of-its kind model increases scooter fleet uptime with faster charge times and enhances user communication with 360º display lights and instant geofence detection.
As touted by Spin, the “T” in S-100T stands for “tough”. Developed by the brand’s in-house team, this seventh generation e-scooter was rigorously tested and tortured through extreme temperatures from -4 to 149ºF, through high and low humidity, and even using saltwater fog to ensure that it can last twice as long as other e-scooters. Moreover, after successfully withstanding more than 400 different safety and durability tests, the S-100T is ready to face the rigors of the real world.
Spin has, in fact, developed the S-100T as an ultra-rugged scooter and expects it to last more than three years compared to about 18 months for its S-100. This makes S-100T Spin’s safest and longest-lasting scooter, two attributes that appeal the most to customers.
Low-life expectancy of scooters is one of the primary causes why companies fail to achieve high profitability. With the launch of S-100T, Spin is focusing on developing a scooter having high durability ensuring that the scooter lasts long, thus paving way for the company’s long-term profitability and growth.
The new e-scooter has three independent braking systems, which include a stomp brake, a front-wheel drum brake, and a rear-wheel regenerative motor braking system. Coupled, these enable the vehicle to halt in less than 15 feet (4.5 meters), ensuring rider safety and security.
Spin claims that S-100T has the industry’s first 500W motor, which will help it overshadow its rivals. Also, S-100T is integrated with a new custom swappable battery to reduce waste and emissions from the deployment operation, while giving the scooter a maximum range of 37 miles (60 km).
Headquartered in San Francisco, Spin was founded as a pedal bike share in 2017. Spin is reimagining cities and communities by offering accessible, affordable and sustainable forms of personal mobility. However, compared to major micromobility companies, Spin has been late in integrating e-mobility bikes in its fleet.
Nonetheless, few days back, Spin announced a new strategic plan to capture a niche in the bike market with an electric twist, and defeat its rivals and become profitable. Per the plan, it is deploying e-bikes for the first time, expanding to numerous cities in the United States and Europe, and executing revamped technologies in its quest to outshine its peers – Lime and Bird.
Amid the rising pressure among micromobility operators to turn a profit, Spin is on the lookout for exclusive and lucrative partnerships. It has also revealed plans to roll out up to 5,000 e-bikes on the streets this year.
Besides, with the intensifying competition among shared scooter and bike companies to produce the best, longest-lasting, and most technically-advanced electric vehicles, the launch of S-100T marks Spin’s latest effort to electrify its fleet and enhance foothold in the two-wheeler market.
Meanwhile, there are rumors that Ford might be divesting Spin into a separate entity via a sale or spin-off of the subsidiary.
Ford, peers of which include General Motors GM, Tesla TSLA and Volkswagen VWAGY, currently carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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