Why drive a stinky internal combustion engine (ICE) that runs on fossil fuels when you can run around on an electric scooter? That’s the thought our reporter Jean Yamamura had after her inventor husband, Robert Miller, designed and built this cool pair of electric scooters.
“My old truck gets 19 miles to the gallon,” she said, “and after we cruised around town a few times, I realized I could scoot fairly safely to the Indy offices downtown and not pollute so much.”
They only live a few miles from downtown, and the cold morning ride certainly wakes you up, Yamamura said. The downside was definitely the scary people driving along the shoulder — “Why do they do that?” — and trucks with wide mirrors that whiz by her head.
Miller had installed solar panels at their home a few years back, so the scooters really do run fossil-fuel-free. “I’ve always dreamt of making electric vehicles, but the batteries were never good enough,” he said. “Now, they’re really good.” Miller’s background in building aircraft added to the scooters’ lightweight design, as it does for the small three- and four-wheeled vehicles he’s working on now.
“It’s the end of the ICE age,” he said.
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