Electric motors are appearing on all kinds of alternative transport, mostly aimed at inner-city streets. But the extreme Gnarboard 4WD Trail Rider is one designed to get right off the road.
You might be thinking 3.4kW - and peak power of 16.5kW -- is a bit ho-hum for a set of electric wheels. But when they’re at each corner of a 39kg skateboard it’s more than enough to get it flying around your average goat track and taking on the kind of tough terrain that’s usually only tackled by 4WDs.
But that’s not to say you can’t use it when you get back to town. The Trail Rider has a range of about 25km, and takes just two hours to fully recharge.
It has a top speed of 55km/h - and on sealed surfaces it can hit it in an astonishing 1.9 seconds. So if you do happen to be in the city, you can drag off just about anything at the lights, short of the Ferrari class.
So what’s to prevent this from being your next commuter solution? The $6200 price might be a bit steep, but the real obstacle is supply.
California-based industrial designer Joshua Tulberg hand-builds the boards in conjunction with a group of small local businesses - at the rate of three a month. Radically slow, dude.
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