Environmentally-conscious people living in crowded cities are increasingly turning to electric bikes and scooters for their daily transportation needs due to their practicality, ease of use, and sustainability. Not to mention they are way more affordable than an electric car and have lower operating costs. But what about those who love the convenience of an electric scooter but want more storage capacity?
Photo: Albert Ebenbichler
German designer and mechanical engineer Albert Ebenbichler has the answer. He designed and built an electric scooter with a total of 70 liters of storage capacity. It is called Fat Albert and has a storage compartment the size of an airplane carry-on bag. Actually, the entire two-wheeler is built around the storage compartment, and some might even say it looks like a trunk on wheels with an electric motor.
Albert Ebenbichler is self-employed, running a company named Albert Ebenbichler Innovations and a scooter aficionado. He created the Fat Albert in his garage in Esslingen near Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. He had the support of specialized motorcycle sidecar builders and TUV Sud, a global technical services provider with experience in the field of energy certification. He designed the e-scooter with practicality and the "joy of transport" in mind. Here is also where its name comes from - FAT is short for Freude am Transport in German.
The e-scooter is built around its large luggage compartment that can fit not one but two suitcases or even a crate of beer. However, to make the design feasible, some compromises had to be made. The additional storage space comes at the expense of some accessibility. In order to ride Fat Albert, you would have to slide one leg over its body frame, like you would do on a conventional motorcycle, as the scooter loses its step-through frame design.
Boasting a tubular steel chassis, Fat Albert has a robust appearance with telescopic forks at the front and two preloadable spring struts at the rear. It has a low enough seat height to be suitable for users of all heights and rides on a set of steel disc wheels with wide tires.
Fat Albert tips the scale at 95 kilograms (209 pounds) with two battery packs and has a total permissible weight of 210 kilograms (463 pounds). So, depending on the rider's weight, you can carry more or less stuff in the luggage compartment. Besides the 70-liter central storage compartment, the e-scooter also has a classic luggage rack on the rear frame.
In terms of performance, the garage-built e-scooter is equipped with a 3,000 watts or 3 kW (4 hp) electric wheel hub motor integrated into the rear wheel. It should allow the two-wheeler to reach a top speed of 28 mph (45 kph), which means it can be driven by Class B car driving license holders.
It comes with two battery packs of 60 volts and 20 Ah capacity each, which are said to provide a range of up to 75 miles (120 km) and fully recharge in about 4 hours using a standard household outlet.
Albert Ebenbichler plans to release four variants of the Fat Albert e-scooter, three of them featuring reverse gear for easy maneuverability within cities. The base model will retail for 4,970 Euros ($5,371), with deliveries set to start in June 2023, while the top-of-the-range model will be available for 6,590 Euros ($7,070).
Albert Ebenbichler is self-employed, running a company named Albert Ebenbichler Innovations and a scooter aficionado. He created the Fat Albert in his garage in Esslingen near Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. He had the support of specialized motorcycle sidecar builders and TUV Sud, a global technical services provider with experience in the field of energy certification. He designed the e-scooter with practicality and the "joy of transport" in mind. Here is also where its name comes from - FAT is short for Freude am Transport in German.
The e-scooter is built around its large luggage compartment that can fit not one but two suitcases or even a crate of beer. However, to make the design feasible, some compromises had to be made. The additional storage space comes at the expense of some accessibility. In order to ride Fat Albert, you would have to slide one leg over its body frame, like you would do on a conventional motorcycle, as the scooter loses its step-through frame design.
Boasting a tubular steel chassis, Fat Albert has a robust appearance with telescopic forks at the front and two preloadable spring struts at the rear. It has a low enough seat height to be suitable for users of all heights and rides on a set of steel disc wheels with wide tires.
Fat Albert tips the scale at 95 kilograms (209 pounds) with two battery packs and has a total permissible weight of 210 kilograms (463 pounds). So, depending on the rider's weight, you can carry more or less stuff in the luggage compartment. Besides the 70-liter central storage compartment, the e-scooter also has a classic luggage rack on the rear frame.
In terms of performance, the garage-built e-scooter is equipped with a 3,000 watts or 3 kW (4 hp) electric wheel hub motor integrated into the rear wheel. It should allow the two-wheeler to reach a top speed of 28 mph (45 kph), which means it can be driven by Class B car driving license holders.
It comes with two battery packs of 60 volts and 20 Ah capacity each, which are said to provide a range of up to 75 miles (120 km) and fully recharge in about 4 hours using a standard household outlet.
Albert Ebenbichler plans to release four variants of the Fat Albert e-scooter, three of them featuring reverse gear for easy maneuverability within cities. The base model will retail for 4,970 Euros ($5,371), with deliveries set to start in June 2023, while the top-of-the-range model will be available for 6,590 Euros ($7,070).
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