“If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.” – Fred Kent

I look around and I see people panicking while smiling and I get why – because everyone seems to be running out of time. Things are changing so quickly, the world is moving at a faster pace than we even anticipated. Having one career or source of income doesn’t make sense anymore, you can’t be one thing or two things. The future requires us to be at least four things at once. We have careers that didn’t exist 5 years ago such as digital strategist, online community manager. Then you get brands that have disrupted everything on how we see and interact with brands. – Apple, Air BnB, Uber, Netflix are some of the brands that have helped us move forward and you cant tell this story without mentioning Tesla either.

Local and Regional authorities around the world are grappling with the big question of Sustainable Urban Mobility. How to materially improve and effectively satisfy the mobility needs of people now and into the future, for a better quality of life in mainly urban environments. How do we begin to address last mile issues whilst simultaneously easing congestion and minimizing negative environmental impacts?

As Entrepreneurs we have heeded the Clarion call and in response Present eGlyder!

A dynamic South African start up, headed by five young black business visionaries, that seeks to irreversibly change the game, with a select range of high quality and super efficient electric vehicles or Urban Mobility Vehicles (UMVs) as we like to call them, has a cool ring to it doesn’t it? Speaking of cool, the Generation 1 electric bike cuts a really cool silhouette, with state of the art low rider design, high end materials and smart tech, like Bluetooth, remote alarm, tracker, remote switch-off and battery gauge to boot.

And that’s beginning. The team has already spec-ed in Generation 3 designs with significantly improved smart technology for the techno savvy rider who is looking for more from his UMV. With 1000W 60V brushless motors and 60V, 12-28Ah batteries, power and range are not a factor for the rider, with an average distance of 50km on a single 6 hour charge and a top end of 35km/h. The end goal is lofty, but attainable. Imagine South Africans of all backgrounds and persuasions, efficiently eGlyding from one location to another, whilst periodically stopping briefly at one of many quick charge docking stations to top up their battery, before safely eGlyding home. This reality is upon us and with eGlyder the future is NOW! Come for the eGlyde…

The eGlyder costs R25 000 with financing options, for more information visit www.eglyder.com

Writer: George Gladwin Matsheke