- "Don’t ignore the mobility scooter. It may just be the future of transport", accessed on 22 October 2017. Also "Meet the Mavericks", accessed the same day.
- "Toyota Concept-i Ride makes mobility easier for disabled drivers", accessed on 22 October 2017.
The first article suggests the future of transport might be small-footprint, personal and electric devices, like mobility scooters, but that infrastructure, legislation and planning are already starting behind the 'eight-ball', and would need to work quickly catch up, but there is no sign that this is occurring.
The second article highlights a small, electric concept vehicle developed by Toyota to be displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2017, reinforcing the first article's point. Vehicle manufacturers are thinking about and starting to develop small, electric vehicles, and in this case, a vehicle designed for wheelchair users.
Battery and electric motor technology certainly seem to be advancing at a pace to offer some good opportunities. Just look at the proliferation of power-assisted bicycles, unicycles, skateboards and hoverboards. But in most cases, legislation is slow to catch up and the legal status of these devices is unclear at best, and unlawful at worst.
So what is already on the market for people with disabilities, particularly people using manual wheelchairs needing an electric boost from time-to-time? There are a number of products that fall into two broad categories:
- Devices that transform a manual wheelchair
- Alber e-motion and twion power wheels. Cheesy, but informative, video can be seen here. WARNING - it contains wheelchair dancing!
- Max Mobility SmartDrive MX2+. Slickly produced video can be seen here.
- Spinergy Inc. ZX-1 Power Add-On. Video can be seen here.
- Attachable handbikes
This list is not intended to be exhaustive, and not all of the above products have Australian distributors. In particular, Team Hybrid make a nice-looking and competitively-priced product, but do not have an Australian distributor; however, they will sell from the UK to Australian clients.
Given the advances in battery and electric motor technology outside the disability arena, the prices for these disability products should be reasonable. Right? Whilst noting that reasonableness of pricing is clearly subjective, by any measure, the answer must be a resounding 'No'. Some examples include: the price for a Max Mobility SmartDrive MX2+ is $9,199 on Push Mobility's website; I had a local service provider quote me verbally approx $12,000 for a set of Alber e-motion wheels.
My interest however has primarily been in the attachable handbikes as a mechanism to get out and about in the community. But here again, pricing is prohibitive and arguably anti-competitive. Earlier this year, I got a quote for supply and fitting of a Batec Quad Electric handbike. I was anticipating a quote in excess of $10,000, but not $13,700. The quote was not itemised in any way - it was a single line quote of $13,700, which to me seemed unreasonable. So I did what any modern consumer does, and had a whinge on Facebook:
The responses from Batec were illuminating:
I have omitted from the above exchange some examples of price comparisons to support my contention that prices in Australia are significantly higher, but here's a few up-to-date examples:
- Batec Quad Electric from French supplier - 5666 Euro ($AUD8,640 as at 22 October 2017)
- Batec Quad Electric from UK supplier - 5,295 Pounds ($AUD8,930 as at 22 October 2017)
- Batec Quad Electric from Canadian supplier - $CAD8,840 ($AUD8,955 as at 22 October 2017)
Even allowing an additional $1,000 for accessories and fitting, these prices are still consistently under the quoted Australian price, by enough that it is not an overstatement to say that I could fly to Europe or North America, buy a handbike, and still be ahead compared to the Australian prices. It is particularly concerning that Batec seemed to implicitly identify the NDIS as a reason for higher prices in Australia:
It’s true that the price of our products can vary depending on the market. There are many reasons for this and they differ in each case but are normally associated with the cost of transporting and importing the products to the country in question and with the structure of the local technical-aids sector. So, for example, in Spain orthoshops are authorised to sell technical aids, while in other countries these products are provided to users by the state directly. Likewise, in some countries there aren’t any government subsidies to help cover the cost of purchasing these products, like Spain, while others like Australia do offer this type of aid. [emphasis added]
Normally I would accept that the cost of transporting products to Australia would be legitimate, but if this was the case, then surely Canadian prices should look similar to Australian prices, but they don't.
What else can one buy for $13,700? In particular, can I buy a car for this amount? The answer is a definite 'Yes'.
Holden Spark LS - $13,250
Mitsubishi Mirage Hatch ES - $13,990
OK, not terribly great cars, but brand new, road-legal cars. And these devices are not cars. The most appropriate point of comparison however is not a car, but is an electric bicycle, and their prices range up to $3,000. So, unfortunately, for whatever market-based reasons, personal electric transport devices are not yet an achievable option for people with disabilities.