Unagi's new electric scooter promises a longer, smoother ride for a subscription

Unagi — the company behind the Model One scooter — has announced a new electric scooter. This new scooter will usher in the company’s new subscription-based business strategy.

Unagi has unveiled its new addition to the micro-mobility market — the Model One Voyager. According to The Verge, the company says the new vehicle will offer a longer, smoother ride and will be easier to use than its previous model.

Unagi’s new scooter is said to have a charge distance of 25 miles, which gives it about 10 more miles than the Model One offers. To achieve this, however, the Model One Voyager was given a bigger battery that makes the scooter a pound heavier than the Model One. In addition to longer distance, the Voyager will have more torque, a higher peak power, faster charging, and new colors.

Unagi has also upgraded the display to make settings easier to find and have it connect to an Unagi app over Bluetooth. The Unagi app will also be compatible with the original Model One.

In addition to the new scooter, it appears the company is also fully pivoting to subscriptions. Unagi’s CEO, David Hyman, is all in on the new direction according to an interview with The Verge.

“It was a total fluke that electric scooters started through ride-sharing,” Hyman told The Verge. But when it comes to Bird, Lime, and the others, “you’ve got to wake up, hunt, and peck for one, usually the first or second or third ones are broken, or the batteries are dead.”

Before now, Unagi was using a hybrid model that allowed customers to choose between either buying a scooter outright or paying a $50 subscription fee that handles maintenance and replacement.

As for what to expect price-wise, the Voyager will be $67 a month. You’ll be able to subscribe through Unagi’s website, but you’ll also eventually be able to find the vehicle in brick-and-mortar stores, like Best Buy.

Before you go out and get the Model One Voyager for yourself, make sure you’re ready first. For example, some cities, like London, have laws against standup electric scooters like this. If you’d like to know what else needs to be considered before getting an electric scooter, check out our article here.