A New Walkthrough of the Apollo Explore 2024 Shows Us the Scooter's Future
The Apollo Explore 2024
Any resemblance between Apollo CTO Eloi Pecquet and a young Steve Jobs is purely coincidental, but Pecquet does quote the Apple founder in a just-released video, a walkthrough of the Apollo Explore 2024, and maybe there’s a similar energy.
Reserve your Apollo Explore 2024 for just $20 here
The Explore 2024 debuts next year as one of a series of major redesigns including this year’s Pro, and we are definitely being encouraged to make iPhone comparisons.
And boy, did we patent it! – Eloi Pecquet, Apollo CTO, 2023
And boy, have we patented it! – Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, 2007
The Explore takes notable Apollo Pro 2023 features – a Quadlock-mounted phone-as-display option (with built-in dot matrix display alternative), embedded GPS and IoT, 12” self-healing tires – and sprints with them, adding never-before-seen (from Apollo) design features, like an embedded bluetooth speaker and swappable battery.
Perfecting the Explore’s formula has been an ongoing two-year odyssey, including the wait for all those patent approvals, Pecquet explains.
“We have industrial patents, design patents, because it’s quite unique, as you can see, and we really think that this scooter is going to become a key signature of the Apollo Design.”
We should look to the Explore, in other words, to understand what’s next for Apollo, and maybe for electric scooters writ large.
Building on a History of Innovation
Since the release of the Phantom V1 back in 2021, Apollo has honed its reputation as a premier designer of electric scooters built using customer feedback and crowd-sourced ideas. Think of them as bespoke scooter-makers for the masses – a huge evolution from humble beginnings before the company developed its own design vocabulary.
Apollo has taken praise and criticism in equal measure in subsequent Phantom iterations, and the integration of their app with IoT sensors has given the company near-instantaneous feedback from riders in the form of mileage, routes, battery statistics, and other invaluable data points that get upcycled by the tech and design teams in their scooter upgrades.
Embedded IoT tech makes its way into the Explore, one of many “game-changing” features (to quote our review of the original Explore) that Apollo touts as launching “a new age of adventure discovery, and innovation in the electric scooter space.” Those are extravagant claims, but if any electric scooter company currently operating can deliver on them, we trust Apollo to get it right.
Deck Cramps a Thing of the Past
We’ve seen one the Explore’s most radical innovations before: folding platforms in place of the usual standing deck, or what Apollo calls a “DualDeck Platform.” Pecquet strongly suggests Apollo got there first and kept things under wraps while other design challenges – such as 360-degree turn signals – were solved.
It’s impossible for us to say who got there first, but we’re fans of this front-facing riding solution. The DualDeck Platform eliminates cramped feet on a regular deck and improves stability, safety, and ride quality by locating the scooter’s center of gravity squarely in the middle, as on a bike or motorcycle – or (we might as well say) an original Segway.
Look, No Maintenance!
In certain basic ways, scooter designs can’t stray too far from the scooter’s fundamental principles – no matter how high-tech the build, we’ll always look to electric scooters as relatively lightweight, low-hassle transportation options.
While the Explore makes extensive use of connected technology, it’s also virtually no-maintenance, given its self-healing tubeless tires and fully electronic, regenerative brakes. No inner tubes or brake pads to change, ever.
The scooter’s extra-slender profile when folded almost guarantees you’ll find a place to store it at home or in the office, although the lack of collapsible handlebars means the folding platforms don’t actually reduce the footprint that much.
The New Explore: User-Centric Development
In bringing back old model names like Pro and Explore, it’s as if Apollo wants to prove how far they’ve come in just a few short years. During the walkthrough, Pecquet also shows how much the Explore will change in the coming months as elements like a hook for keeping the stem in place when folded have already been cut from the final. Handgrips will change as well, to the same grips used by the (TEASER) City and City Pro 2023… Coming Soon…..
You might get the sense that everything you learn about the Explore V1 is subject to change in the future. But the core designs of the scooter, it’s dual-500W motors, folding platforms in place of a deck, house-built Mach 1 controller, 12-inch self-healing tubeless tires, and Bluetooth and IoT integration will remain the same.
However, “as part of our commitment to product development,” the company writes in a press release, “we will showcase between 5 to 6 versions of the prototype, allowing the community to provide valuable feedback with each video.”
Take advantage of Apollo’s commitment to user-centric design and let them know what you think of the Explore V1 before it reaches its final design stages next year. Stay updated on the latest at Apollo’s official website. Reserve your own Explore 2024 for $20 (refundable) here.
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