Scoot And Nissan Collaborate On Electric Car Ride-Sharing Network In San Francisco

Scoot, the San Francisco-based electric scooter ride-sharing network, has teamed up with Nissan to create Scoot Quad, a four-wheeled, two-seater electric vehicle, which has now been made available to a select number of consumers.

The Scoot Quad by Scoot Networks has a range of 40 miles and a maximum speed of 25 mph. Just like the red scooter from Scoot, it is a shared vehicle that’s intended for short trips in the city. The company has announced that ten of these vehicles have now been made available to Scoot members. To use a Quad, a member simply opens the Scoot app and reserves a car at one of five locations in San Francisco. The app indicates if the car is fully charged or is currently charging, it reminds you of the pricing, and then it offers to play an instructional video. The cost is $8 for 30 minutes or $80 for a full day, coming in at approximately four times the price of renting one of the company’s 400 scooters.

Michael Keating, founder and CEO of Scoot, explains that the hourly rental prices are competitive with Uber, while the full day pass is more in line with a Zipcar. He says that small electric vehicles like the Quad are good for commuting, taking your kids to school, buying groceries or going out on a date.

“Since it can’t go on the highways, it’s a little bit more limited than a regular car,” said Keating. “But in the city, it’s better than a car because it’s easier to park and it’s more maneuverable.”

The Quad seems to be a bit of an experiment for both Scoot and Nissan, with the potential for an expansion of the program in the future.

“As large cities continue to grow into megacities globally, we need to understand how transportation is changing and look ahead to anticipate what transportation needs will look like in the future,” said Nissan Future Lab executive director Rachel Nguyen.

Nissan is already familiar with the electric vehicle market, first introducing the Nissan LEAF to San Francisco in 2010. Now, the company will continue working with Scoot to develop innovative forms of electric transportation in our cities.

Although the Quad does seem to have the potential to become popular in San Francisco, customers cannot park the vehicle in all of the places where they can park one of the company’s scooters. While the startup was recently granted approval to park its scooters in any designated parking area in San Francisco, the Quads will remain in designated garage spaces. It will be very interesting to see if this initial experiment catches on with city-dwellers to allow the two companies to expand the program into other regions in the future.

To create the Quad, Scoot decided to collaborate with a traditional automaker, Nissan. It’s classified as a light electric vehicle and it carries two people. However, the only space for a passenger is directly behind the driver, with their legs on either side of them, so it’s not exactly a luxury ride in the back. On the positive side, the Quad has a pair of doors that open up like a Lamborghini. Certainly, drivers are likely to get noticed and approached about the vehicle due to its highly unusual appearance.