eFOLDi eyes ‘biggest market’

SURREY, England – eFOLDi has cracked into the U.S. market with its lightweight folding scooter through a new partnership with Afikim, an Israel-based distributor with a warehouse in Florida and a network of more than 200 dealers across the country. 

eFOLDi is also talking up the scooter’s appeal directly with DME providers. 

“We have done a survey of customers in the U.K. and their average age is 78,” said Sumi Wang, founder and CEO. “It’s mostly elderly people who are still trying to be active. They want to go out and enjoy themselves and they often use the scooter in combination with their cars. They might drive to the supermarket and take it out of their trunk and ride it into the supermarket and back.” 

eFOLDi, part of SunTech U.K. Limited, has already gained traction in Europe, not to mention other areas like Scandinavia and Australia. 

The uptake on eFOLDi has been brisk, company officials say. In 2018, the first run of 300 scooters – a shipping container’s worth – sold out quickly. In fact, the company ran out of stock five times in that first year, Wang says. The scooter also got noticed by top execs at Virgin Atlantic, helping the company to successfully raise money through crowd funding and later through institutional investors to increase production. 

“We were planning to go to the U.S. in 2020, but because of COVID, we were delayed three years,” she said. “We believe the U.S. is the biggest market for our product.” 

eFOLDi’s latest version of the scooter, the eFOLDi Lite, is built with the DME provider in mind – it weighs less than 33 pounds, folds easily into one compact piece and features electromagnetic brakes, company officials say. 

“It’s more typical of the other products they sell,” said Tim Ross, global sales manager. “At the end of day, if you can’t lift it – yourself or your partner – it’s not very good for travel. So, it’s not only one of the lightest scooters but also it folds up small and compact. You don’t even have to bend down, and you don’t need any tools.” 

The inspiration for eFOLDi came from Wang’s father, who invented the scooter after he broke his leg as part of his work as the technical director of a Chinese acrobatic troupe. 

“Three months after he came out of the hospital, he was on his first scooter he designed for himself,” she said. “He could go anywhere and no matter where he went people looked at him and asked him where he bought it. They were disappointed to learn it was the only one in the world.” 

An episode of vertigo that meant Wang couldn’t open her eyes for nearly a year gave her new perspective on her father’s experience with lack of mobility and she quit her university job in London to develop the scooter into what eFOLDi is today.  

“I could see how important it was to help people move around,” she said. “I wanted to make the scooter my dad developed into a proper product that could help as many as possible who wanted the freedom of traveling.”