You could call Max Rastelli a guru of the micro mobility revolution.
He’s definitely a scholar and an activist in the world-wide push to get more people moving on low-environmental-footprint vehicles of the ‘micro’ variety. Think e-scooters, electric skateboards, e-bikes, and the Segway, a well-known early player in the human transporter segment.
Max started HFX e-Scooters in 2019 after successfully bringing Segway personal transporters to Halifax.
Max Rastelli swaps out batteries in his HFX e-Scooters.Photo: Ford Canada
He has helped the Halifax Regional Municipality develop a pilot project for 2024, so expect to see more e-scooters zipping around your neighborhood.
As simple as these e-scooters seem, they are actually computers on two wheels.
Max worked with an app developer to design the software that enables him to locate the scooters anywhere around the city, pick them up, recharge them and then put them back into circulation. The intuitive app is used by both HFX e-Scooters employees and their customers.
Max Rastelli worked with an app developer to get people moving on his HFX e-Scooters.Photo: HFX e-Scooters
Zipping around the city to gather the scooters requires a pickup truck and Max is a Ford pickup truck guy.
But an electric vehicle has been on his mind for a long time.
When the company announced their all-electric Lightning F-150 pickup truck back in 2021, it didn’t take long for Max to put his money down.
Demand for the exciting pickup truck was so high (70,000 deposits received by Ford in the first four days after the announcement), that it took 14 months for Max to get the Lightning.
The front cargo area of the Lightning proves useful for Max Rastell’s HFX e-Scooters business.Photo: Ford Canada
That did not dampen his enthusiasm for the vehicle. There are so many good things about the Lightning that Max can’t list them fast enough.
Having the F-150 Lightning meant that he no longer had to collect the e-scooters from wherever they had been ‘parked’ by customers and bring them to his waterfront location to charge them.
Ford F-150 Lightning at work charging batteries for HFX e-ScootersPhoto: Ford Canada
With its available 9.6kW of Pro Power Onboard exportable power, he can charge 30 swappable batteries at a time right in the bed and the cab of the Lightning, while driving around!
“It became immediately clear to me that the F-150 Lightning could boost my business productivity as a mobile battery charging station through the use of Pro Power Onboard. Thanks in part to this truck, I’ve been able to double the number of e-Scooters on my fleet, with near-zero downtime related to charging, making my business twice as efficient,” says Max.
“And it doesn’t hurt that this truck is a lot of fun to drive, with its low centre of gravity and smooth ride,” he adds with a grin, “I needed another one!”
Thinking it would take another 14 months to get his second one, he called his Ford dealer. Five days later, he took possession of his second Lightning!
Max Rastelli with his two Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup trucks.Photo: Ford Canada
He smirks when he tells us that sometimes he charges one Lightning with the other one.
Over the past five years, Max has seen the use of e-scooters go from recreation and fun purposes to the majority of his customers now using them to get from point A to point B.
HFX e-Scooters website is intuitive and easy to use.Photo: HFX e-Scooters
In 2023, HFX e-scooters had 25,000 unique riders and overall, close to 100,000 rides. Business is booming like thunder and Max credits some of that success to his double Lightning pickup trucks.
Thanks for the visit, Max, and see you in the spring when EastCoastTester.com comes to take a spin on a HFX e-Scooter.
