Solar powered scooter engineer needs a hundred monkeys

Did you ever meet a person so infected with a dream that it can only be contagious?

I learned of Hans Boës quite by accident, after stumbling across a pair of solar bikes chained together in a small plaza in Berlin’s creative and crazy Kreuzberg district.

© C. Lepisto

Fortunately, the inventor left a calling card:

© Dipl.-Ing. Hans Boës

The soft-spoken man behind the dream of post-fossil fuel mobility, Hans Boës, builds his prototypes out of recycled bits and pieces, which gives them a quirky appearance in the prototype phase. To be fair, the solar powered scooters are a side-line: his iTroll pedelec-style scooter looks very professional and his iTroll Mushing machine will make you want to own a big dog.

Hans is also in negotiations with a company for serial production of his patented foldable scooter that can serve as a shopping trolley when folded but is also robust enough for touring for two:

© Dipl.-Ing. Hans Boës

But his tone changes when he talks about his solar scooter. Hans conveys the joy of the ride as he reels off the many benefits such as standing while negotiating dangerous city traffic and the protective comfort of the front panels — neither wind nor rain nor pushy drivers can keep Hans from his appointed tasks. He compares the ride on the large, low-set platform — a pedelec motor activated by the push of a foot propelling him forward — to dancing. The logo under the Solarscooter evolution logo reads “nur fliegen ist schöner,” translated: “only flying is more beautiful.” …