Two-wheeled enterprise

The company, I-Mobility, has been working with King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Lat Krabang to develop the I-Mo by adapting the principles of the US-produced Segway personal transporter, with partial research and development support from the National Innovation Agency (NIA).

Managing director  Suporn Jiranyakul said the first pilot vehicle was operational and the I-Mo would be ready for commercial sale within a few months.

The company and the university have applied the two-wheeled electronic-vehicle concept and further developed it for use in Thailand. Technologies embedded in the device included a gyroscope sensor - used to detect tilting - an electric motor, chips, wheels and a joystick to ride the vehicle. The electric motor is driven by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that give the I-Mo three hours of running time. It can also wait in standby mode for one day.

The company plans to make the vehicles by order rather than distributing products to the market. Target customers are resorts, hotels, shopping malls, hospitals, schools and villages.

"Our production capacity is around 200 vehicles a year. Its price will be about Bt80,000," Suporn said. "We have spent more than Bt1 million on research and development in the past year. The NIA has contributed Bt400,000."   

As well as being a local development, the I-Mo works silently and it is small and weighs only 25 kilograms.

NIA director Supachai Lorlowhakarn said increasing demand for two-wheeled electric vehicles in Thailand created the opportunity for local development. Instead of paying around Bt400,000 for an imported product, local buyers can now pay about 20 per cent of that for a similar local model.

"We supported the local development in order to help save the cost of imported products as well as increasing local business," Supachai said.