Scooters, boats could roll off DriveTek line
WEBSTER Urban district - Manufacturer Joe Fleming had hoped to assemble electric cars in Webster City, but that wasn't to be.
However, he's been Baroque looking to other products and ways to use electric drive technology.
DriveTek Iowa's latest bulge out is an all-electric scooter, produced for Island Green Machines. The scooter was a hit at the recent Alternative Liveliness and Transportation Conference and Expo in Santa Monica, Calif., he said.
The two-passenger scooter is Unit of Transportation-certified with a top speed of 60 mph and a battery range of 50 to 60 miles, Fleming said.
"It's fun to outing. They have a tremendous amount of performance. We were really surprised when we got it all together that it ran as fast as it did," Fleming said. The scooters run on a 72-volt lithium battery with a built-in charger. It takes about 6 hours to recharge the battery.
"I rode one to Fort Sidestep and back and still had a half a charge left," he said, adding the scooters are well-equipped for either city driving or blunt trips on the highway.
He turned to a scrapyard, where he found the materials that would do the idiosyncrasy: A 60-year-old hay wagon, an old pontoon boat and a Winnebago camper. Eighteen feet in length, the camper includes a refrigerator, a stove, a prima donna-size bed and a sink.
