24,000-Watt Scooter Is Going for a 100 MPH Speed Record at Bonneville

Summary

Get The Drive’s daily newsletter The latest car news, reviews, and features. A British outfit called Bo makes a sleek little electric scooter called the Model-M. The best variant claims a 22 mph top speed and a 40-mile range for $2,500. Sounds pricey but practical. The prototype Turbo model is another story—it’s gunning for triple-digit speeds at the Bonneville salt flats next month. Bo has been around since 2022, but seems to be on a bit of a marketing blitz—last week, it released a teaser video of somebody clad in full Moto GP-looking garb absolutely ripping through a tunnel on its Turbo model concept, and it seems to be loaning out the more socially acceptable Model M to journalists for test rides. My old buddy Matt Hardigree was recently test-riding one and seemed to dig it. The Bo website says the company’s engineers left Formula 1 to work on scooters “because we think electric scooters are the most important vehicle innovation of this century.” Bold! I have fond memories of the Bird scooter fad when I lived in LA—I rode one all the way from Culver City to Marina Del Rey one time, it was fun and took about the same time as driving in traffic. But then everyone got sick of them, threw them into the ocean, and I haven’t seen them littering the streets of any city in years. Bo is obviously looking to get away from the disposable vibe, which I appreciate. The Model-M is being framed as an elite alternative to janky Bird and Lime scooters. Though to be honest, it still looks like every other scooter to me, just with one extra layer of aluminum skin to give it a slightly softer Cybertrucky look. Not hating—I think electric scooters are fun, and $2,500 for an exceptionally well-made one that can go 40 miles doesn’t seem too outrageous. But there’s no need to go ga-ga over everything that’s finished in big planes of plain silver. The Bo Turbo and a regular Model M on the right. Bo As for the super-fast Turbo models, Wired reported you can buy one for $30,000, but I thi...