Spin’s new e-scooter is designed to stay on the streets for longer

Spin believes that the current crop of scooters are too lily-livered to survive the tough streets of the US. To remedy this, the Ford-owned company is launching the new Spin S-100T, adding that the T stands for “tough.” The new model has been designed with reliability and durability in mind, and was designed and built by the company’s in-house team.

Spin CTO Benny Wong said that the S-100T has been put through extreme durability tests, including extremes of heat and cold. In order to deal with the sort of corrosion that takes place in costal areas, the scooter was tested in salt water fog to “guarantee performance in extremely humid and corrosive conditions.”

As well as durability, the company worked hard to ensure that the bikes spend a lot less time in the workshop. That includes a more modular design that makes it easier to swap out broken components, and better onboard diagnostics to help repair crews find and remedy problems. A better 500W motor, meanwhile, should handle obstacles and hills without burning out, and the brakes are now much more reliable.

A custom-made, swappable battery means that the idea of crews hauling scooters off the road every evening is a thing of the past, too. Theoretically, a crew can just swap out the dead batteries for fresh ones and ensure that scooters are available to use pretty much all the time.

Spin added that the bike is running new, custom software which can better be customized and adapted in future. That includes better geofencing and enforcement, as well as the planned addition of Insight, a scooter-centric ADAS system developed by Drover. Sadly, the Tortoise-created remote driving features are not available on the S-100T, since it’s only usable by three-wheeled vehicles.

The new Spin S-100T will be deployed in Sacramento this summer, before rolling out to other cities in the coming months.