Back at last year’s Geneva Motor Show, one of the most interesting sights to be seen at the ‘Pavillon Vert’ (Green Pavilion) was the Voltitude, a very clever electrically-assised folding bike from Switzerland. It is the brainchild of Eric and Andre-Marcel Collombin and just by looking at it you can see that it is a quality product, where each and every single piece is treated like a work of art.
It features a 250 W electric motor which can nudge it along at a reasonable 25 km/h, before it runs out of juice some 20 to 40 km later, depending on the level of electrical assistance needed for the trip. If, however, you run out of juice, you can always pedal your way out of trouble - that shouldn’t be a problem either, since it comes fitted with a 7-speed Shimano transmission.
However, there’s a price to pay for all this cleverness and artsy components - the price. It costs, wait for it, €3,850, not including taxes, which to us seems like way too much. If they do manage to get the price down in coming years, perhaps it may have a chance at success, otherwise it will be just another clever idea hindered by financial and bureaucratic issues.
Demonstration of the folding mechanism
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