Volkswagen has announced plans to release a three-wheel electric scooter that's foldable and highlights the company's advancements in battery technology.

Volkswagen is positioning the scooter as a Segway competitor that will not only be quite a bit lighter, at 24 pounds, but it will also reportedly be much cheaper.

The news of the new scooter's release follows criticism from former Volkswagen CEO Ferdinand Piëch, saying that the company has a lack of creativity and vision. Current CEO Martin Winterkorn seems to have taken that criticism seriously, announcing a new low-cost car at the same time as the scooter.

The scooter is largely designed to take you that "extra mile." So, after parking your car or taking the train, you could hop on the scooter to get to your destination quicker. This will be especially useful for people who are always busy and on the go.

The scooter itself has a range of about 12 miles, which should certainly be enough to get you from your car to your destination and back. It could also come in handy for zipping out to the store to pick something up, rather than having to drive over.

An issue some people predict for the scooter is that it has such small wheels — which they suggest might not be able to handle cracks in the pavement. Of course, this remains to be seen, and it's certainly possible that the wheels will be perfectly capable.

The design of the new scooter takes cues from Volkswagen's XL1, which entered very limited production (only 250 were built), and was ironically enough a project of Ferdinand Piëch.

With its flat-colored and futuristic design, it is easy to imagine these new products being just the introduction to a more creative and interesting Volkswagen. The scooter is expected to hit the market by mid-2016, and will cost less than 1,000 euros, or around $1,094 by the conversion rate at the time of writing.

There's no specific release date yet, and there is also no confirmation that the scooter will actually be released in the U.S. at all, as the initial release is expected for Europe. Segway, however, could finally see some serious competition.

It is more than likely that we will begin to see more of these kinds of products as cities get denser and harder to drive in, and as cars start to be banned in city centers.

Via: The Verge