The Explore’s Back! Or Is It…?
It’s back…. again, and we hope this time to stay. That’s right, Apollo is bringing back the Explore, a scooter ESG called a “game changer” before we knew Apollo as the name behind supernaturally great scooters like the Phantom and the Ghost.
The new 2023 Apollo Explore promises to change the game yet again.
But wait… Is the Explore back? Or has Apollo resurrected the name for another scooter, a different scooter “unlike any other scooter before,” as they say in a new teaser video? Given that it’s called the Explore V1, we can assume this is a totally new concept.
The new Apollo Explore does a whole lot more than its namesake. “Unlimited range in a compact body”… What?! Maybe think of the name as more an homage than a continuation of the earlier scooter’s design principles. Just watch the video and you’ll see what I mean….
“Designed with safety at the forefront,” Apollo writes, and “utilizing the latest advancement in material technology,” the upcoming Explore also aims to be something of an Apollo Pro for the masses, an affordable version of an upcoming scooter with flagship potential.
Like the new Explore, the Apollo Pro brings back an old model name for a new scooter. (The Pro is the company’s first “hyper scooter.”) But for all its proprietary tech, the Pro retains the basic form factor of an electric kick scooter, albeit with a luxuriously wide-looking rubberized deck.
A Totally New Kind of Scooter
The new Explore, on the other hand, delves into the world of folding foot platforms pioneered by upstart scooter maker Taur. These enable highly stable, front-facing riding, a much slimmer folded profile, and (in Taur’s case) larger wheels/tires. This is new territory for Apollo, indeed.
Aside from the experimental frame, it seems the Explore will harness the proprietary high technology used in the Pro, and like all of Apollo’s scooters since the Phantom V1, integrates what riders themselves say they most want in an electric scooter.
And what most riders have told Apollo is that they want to lose the displays (which the company continues to improve in its Phantom V3) and use their phones instead. This makes sense, given that so many people end up using their phones as secondary displays anyway.
Phone-as-display also makes sense for Apollo, who seem bent on becoming as much a software company as a scooter company and are increasingly integrating IoT into their vehicles for real-time rider feedback and extensive firmware updates.
Stay tuned, Apollo tells us, (and sign up for their newsletter) for a walkthrough of the new Explore V1. Oh, we will…..
