I was actually thinking of this question just the other day....
It's a really interesting thing to think about.... especially as builder/seller of eboards & DIY eboard kits... its involves thinking a lot about the market and trying to predict the future of market trends..
Skateboards in the traditional sense are (for me anyway) all about building a board that suits your own style. I was a skateboard rider long before I was an electric skateboard builder. The most exciting thing for me was upgrading parts after a year or so thrashing the streets... going to choose a new deck was especially enjoyable.
Each time you upgrade an old part for a new one you had to adjust and relearn things that felt perfectly natural on your old deck....it was refereshing.
I really don't want this feeling to be absent from the eboarder experience, now and especially in the future when kids who are riding eboards 10 years from now may have never experienced what self propulsion non-electric skateboarding was all about....
The day of all (or at least most) skateboards sales being eboards is inevitable... technology would have easily advanced enough to ensure that every skateboard has motors by the time my 9 month old is half my age.
So here's the delema...
I 100% believe that fully integrated components, as per marbel, probably are the best overall design solution for electric skateboards... it is also probably lighter... and perhaps probably more robust, offering better protection for the components... and for the mass production of electric skateboards probably makes the most sense.... the only thing that needs to happen is hub motors and it will be visually no different than a normal skateboard....
The biggest problem with "mass production style" eboards is (especially for the die hard skaters) it's never going to ride as nice as a normal skateboard.... so you instantly split the market in two.
1. People who think electric skateboards are a shit version of a real skateboard! <And> 2. those who love innovative products and who don't care that it doesn't 'feel' good like a 'real' skateboard...
skaters vs commuters
For me the ultimate solution is a conversion kit that looks as good as a full production board but can be used on ANY skateboard deck. I strongly believe that an ad-hoc system with interchangeable or upgradeable & adaptable components will be what opens up the market of electric skateboards to the world and makes it accessible to the masses.. think PC's vs MAC
It needs to use universal parts that are readily available allowing upgrades and customizations.... and of course feel good enough for die hard skaters to be enticed to ride....
Boosted seems to be trying to please the skaters... marbel seem to want to innovate and create a new genre.... only time will tell who was right...
Here are some other reasons fully integrated production boards might suck.
- Hard to fix/replace internal parts due to access, need specialist tools or training.
- Costly Proprietary parts... Too bad if you need to use a different controller or battery tech.. you're locked in to the form factor. (PC vs MAC)
- Can't remove battery. Restricted Travel via Air planes.
- All-in-one integrated carbon composite deck alone would cost double or triple or MORE of a simple tried a tested maple deck. So definitely don't frock it up.... this also means that marbel will need to produce heaps of them to keep the cost down... which will ultimately limit their ability to innovate with new designs... always got to sell what's on hand first!.
- production models are all the same... one of the things me and my mates used to like doing when skating is swap boards and see what your mates new ride was like... this helps to develop your style because you discover what you like and what you dont like... it also helps identify when design is really good!... if there are lots of options in the marketplace but everyone ends up using the same thing it must be good!..... that is very different from everyone just using the same thing because they had no choice.
so what i am trying to say is if you are going to make a production electric skateboard make it very new & special, it needs to blow my mind... like BAJA boards did... make something that is completely original..............Otherwise build an elegant simple system that people can bolt onto any skateboard without altering the skateboard experience too much.
