The electric dune buggy, Nosmoke, is now owned by the Kate brand. For the occasion, several technical improvements have been made. At the same time, the manufacturer also announces the arrival of a new 100% electric model next summer, competing with the Citroën Ami: the K1.
With the arrival of the electric car in recent years, we have seen more or less interesting new models arrive, particularly in the field of micromobility. Let’s just say that electric goes quite well with short urban journeys, and small electric cars are becoming more and more numerous, both for driving license holders and for young people.
We already know the model that interests us today, since it is the Nosmoke, a small vehicle produced since 2012 that is reminiscent of the Mini Moke of the 60s, but with electric motor. And its sales figures are far from ridiculous, since more than 1,500 copies of this machine have been assembled in Cerizay, in Deux-Sèvres, since it was put into production.
Nosmoke becomes Kate
But recently there has been a change for Nosmoke, as the builder now becomes Kate, a company created in 2022 by three entrepreneurs. Therefore, Kate will not start from scratch for her new brand, since the company thus has the industrial tool of Nosmoke in its hands. The model is also renamed and is now called kate original.
The car receives some very interesting improvements at the same time. There are three variants, each corresponding to a level of autonomy and a maximum speed.
- Kate Original Lite: 100 km of autonomy and limited to 70 km/h
- Kate Original Medium: 160 km of autonomy and limited to 70 km/h
- Kate Original Extended: 220 km of autonomy and limited to 90 km/h
The little car is already available to order in its new versions and sales are made only on the Internet. And even if Kate’s industrial tool isn’t as big a deal as a big automaker, the catalog is pretty well stocked, especially in terms of color choice. There are 14 body colors available, six colors for the roof, three for the wheels, three for the seats and four for the seat belts.
As for the price, the Original, which cost 22,990 euros on the Nosmoke website, now costs €24,590 with kate Currently, the Nosmoke Original is accessible from the age of 16 with the B1 license. It is therefore a heavy quadricycle, entitled to the ecological bonus of 900 euros.
The Kate K1 already announced
At the same time, Kate announced the arrival of a new model for summer 2023. Called the K1, we don’t know much about this model yet, except that it will be able to answer to “98% of French trips”with routes less than 80 km.
Matthias Goldenberg, Kate’s boss, clarifies Kate’s ambitions in the press release and gives some clues as to what the new K1 will be: « We are firmly convinced that two-tonne SUVs, thermal or even electric, are not the future of everyday mobility. The car of tomorrow, the one for daily commutes, will be light, clean, sober.”.
At the same time, Kate’s acquisition of Nosmoke also frees up “an income line capable of partially financing future developments”. In other words, the Kate K1 should be produced together with the Original and the four million euros in turnover that the brand generated last year will allow this new model to be developed.
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