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The Phantom is a work of electric art, and we’re salivating for more details.
Apollo leaked photos and some of the Phantom’s specs, as they’re accepting preorders starting on March 15th. Let’s take an insider look at this all new, high-performance electric scooter.
With dual 1200W motors, the Phantom is packing serious power, more than Apollo originally planned. That’s the same as the 60V model of the Apollo Pro, which is one of the fastest scooters we’ve tested. However, power is not the only goal of the Phantom. Apollo is building this performance machine from the ground up packing this phantasm with a 52V 23.4 Ah Dynavolt battery delivering a claimed range of 40 miles. With the Phantom, Apollo is focusing “on safety without a compromise of power.” Sounds like a sweet plan to us.
If the Phantom is as powerful as its dual motor predecessors, it also requires serious stopping power, which it should have given it will be packing large 160mm disc brakes. Apollo doubled-up on the suspension, supplying the Phantom with a proprietary quadruple spring suspension (QSS) system, where most of their other models have dual. We’re curious about the advantage of adding more springs, as it’s going to be more expensive to implement and may not actually provide a better feel.
Tires are an easy thing for the manufacturer to change their mind on, but if it comes to market with these street-style 10 in by 3 in tires, which have a rounded profile similar to those on the Splach Turbo but look much bigger, it’ll be a mean street machine, and will take corners like a champ. Combining the large disc brakes and quad suspension with beefy pneumatic tires is excellent for safety, and should ride awesome, too, but we’re not making any promises.
So many fenders satisfy form over function, but these wheel-mounted fenders will actually keep water and dirt at bay on rainy days. Since all Apollo scooters come with an IP54 water resistance rating, we expect nothing less with the Phantom, making it an all-weather scooter. There’s also a light on the stylish fin that houses the hook that you clamp the stem to when folded; it might serve as a good handhold when picking the scooter up.
Here’s Apollo’s all new proprietary LCD HEX display, which is a serious upgrade from the traditional QS-S4 and EYE3 throttles that we see on every other high-performance scooter. It’s attractive, bright, and centered, and a smarter implementation than using your phone as a dashboard, which is the standard on the Apollo Pro Ludicrous. The display will also show your remaining mileage (not just how much charge you have left), which is an awesome feature of this all-new design.
There’s a stem locking clasp beneath the display, which latches to the rear fin for easier carrying. Brake levers and button controls adorn the angled handlebars and feature flat-palm hand grips, which are our favorite. The more we know about the Phantom, the more we want to know.
The buttons on the left handlebar look like they control a digital horn and the lights. It’s identical to the button console from the Kaabo Mantis 8, which has left and right turn signals. The buttons do not provide feedback showing you that the lights are on or off, so you have to check the deck to know for sure. They’re are designed with indicator lights above them, so we hope Apollo gets those to work on the Phantom.
Apollo designed the Phantom with a thumb throttle, which looks like it’s ripped off of the Pro Ludicrous. We freaking love that throttle, because it feels so good. Not only does it deliver linear, immediate power, but it’s also more comfortable to use for long rides than the standard finger trigger throttle.
The three-button console next to the throttle probably controls settings, and is a sleek design that we’ve never seen before. There’s also a key-start ignition, which is a fairly standard security feature on scooters in this class (though we’re not exactly sure what class that is).
Although we’ve liked monochromatic builds from other brands, the Apollo Phantom (and it’s fantasmic brother, the Ghost) are the first Apollo models to go stark black and white. Without their signature Apollo blue, the scooters are just not as eye-catching. However, their names sound stealthy, like they’re meant to fly under the radar, so the color scheme fits in that sense.
Finally with the Phantom, we’re seeing a high-performance scooter with a high-mounted 1000 lumen headlight. All other Apollo models that we’ve reviewed have had some lights, but usually low-mounted and part of the stem or deck. High-mounted lights provide better illumination and we always recommend them, so we’re happy to see Apollo is paying attention.
It will have two front deck lights and two rear turn signals mounted at the corners of the deck. From the next photo, we can’t see any swag lights but we know Apollo can do it, as the Ghost came with bright blue, swaggy deck lights. From this angle, we’re super curious about the folding mechanism, which does not appear to be the stem collar design shared by the Apollo models and most other performance-level scooters.
It looks like they were inspired by the stellar folding mechanism from the Inokim OX and Inokim OXO, which features a lever that locks the stem securely and easily into place. This is by far our favorite design, as it is much faster to use than the stem collar, and has zero wobble. Zero movement, and zero creak as well. It’s fabulous.
Given Apollo’s reputation for excellent customer service and constructing awe-inspiring machines, our expectations of the Phantom have peaked. The features that we know about are safety focused, rider friendly, comfort-inducing elements that almost anyone can appreciate. We’re expecting it to be around the $2,000 price range, but it just seems too good a price to be true. Are you drooling yet?
With what looks like big tires, substantial brakes, and serious suspension, we’re thinking, in addition to the entire team enjoying it, it’ll get a nod of big dawg approval. If seeing is believing, then riding is knowing, and we just don’t know enough yet. The weight of the scooter (It’s going to be 76 lbs, just confirmed by Apollo!), its weight capacity, and the price are going to be big factors when it comes to who the Phantom is for, and we’re dying to try it ourselves.
UPDATES: Announced on January 22 in their Phantom Keynote, the Phantom will be sold in the United States in Canada by Apollo, and worldwide through other retailers. This article has been updated since its original publishing (updates in bold).
Find out how the Phantom actually performs after we run it through our rigorous performance tests next month.
