Monolith Electric Skateboard Puts Motors Inside The Wheels

We've seen electric bikes that try to give cyclists an added push, especially when riding through challenging terrain. That same idea now also applies even to things like skateboards, allowing skaters to do some things they can't on a normal board, like riding uphill. While the Monolith skateboard does offer that, it also wants to be better and offer the authentic feel of a traditional non-powered skateboard. And it might have just found the answer with its new Manta Drive technology that practically hides the motors in each of the wheels.

Monolith's creators claim that while powered skateboards do deliver power, they also feel rough, inauthentic, and even burdened. They believe this is because of how those skateboards have been designed, especially when it came to the electrical parts. Monolith then came up with the idea to actually hide all those parts, putting the motors inside the wheels and everything else inside the unibody deck. This makes the skateboard not only look but also feel like a traditional skateboard and yet deliver the promise of assisted power. The best of both worlds, in short.

Monolith's innovation, however, extends beyond the board itself. Like other boards, it does have a remote control but this Bluetooth-powered RFLX Remote just sits in, or rather around, your hand so that you won't have to worry about dropping it accidentally. You can close or open your hand as much as you want, without fear of it falling or flying away. There is also, of course, a mobile app called Inboard Vision that not only allows users to see and set the board's options, it can also lock the board with a single swipe.

Now if all that sounds fantastic, the one hitch on this ride is that Monolith is still on Kickstarter. That said, it has gathered almost twice its $100,000 goal with 22 more days to go. That said, if you're planning on picking one up, be prepared to really spend, as you will now need a $1,199 pledge to get one.

VIA: Kickstarter