Check out Lime’s new seated electric scooter with shopping bag storage and ‘women appeal’
Lime has a new electric scooter dropping today and you’ll want to be seated for the announcement… and for the ride. The new scooter, creatively named the “Gen4 Seated”, adds a padded platform to the ride for a more comfortable and stable experience.
Today’s new scooter launch doesn’t just include the updated seat. That’s the main selling point, but underneath that seat you’ll find something perhaps even more crucial for those that want to use scooters for everyday vehicle replacements – a cargo storage compartment.
Hidden away under the seat platform is an open container that can hold shopping bags or loose cargo, meaning riders won’t have to dangerously dangle bags off of the handlebars.
Structurally, those are the main two additions to the scooter, which is largely built on top of the existing Lime Gen4 standing electric scooter platform. That means it uses the same motor, the same removable batteries and reaches the same 15 mph (25 km/h) top speed.
But the new seated design is said to appeal to a much wider audience. From a pilot study earlier this year, Lime shared that “results from the pilot found the vehicle appealed to older riders, women riders, and riders with limited mobility more than Lime’s traditional e-bike and e-scooter offerings. For example, the Gen4 Seated attracted 33% more first-time female riders than Lime’s Gen4 e-scooters.”
It’s true, why stand when you can sit? The seated design isn’t only more comfortable on longer rides, but it also makes the scooter feel more stable due to the lower center of gravity. For those that have years of bicycle experience, even if that experience was gained long ago, a seated electric scooter is easier to pick up more quickly. For many people that are new to scooters, it just feels more natural.
Now available in Chicago and Milwaukee, Lime plans to launch the Gen4 Seated scooter in a dozen more cities in the coming months. Australia and New Zealand launches are said to be slated for later next year.
As Lime’s President Joe Kraus explained:
“We’re excited to roll out the Gen4 Seated scooter globally to welcome more riders onto the Lime platform. The new design allows for added comfort and, when paired with our new storage compartment, will provide for more use cases, encouraging more people to consider Lime to fit their needs. The Gen4 Seated aims to empower our riders to navigate their day-to-day with ease, welcoming a wider audience to micromobility via a more approachable and comfortable ride.”
The Gen4 Seated scooters will be available to rent on the street just like Lime’s existing scooters, offering a more accessible option for daily commuters or occasional errand running.
This isn’t the first time Lime has explored seated scooter options. Just over a year ago Lime unveiled a dedicated seated electric scooter built on its own platform, which itself replaced a previous partnership with NIU seeing electric scooters and mopeds operating under the Lime umbrella.
Electrek’s Take
This is a risky move as a straight, white, able-bodied male brimming with privilege, but I’m going to go there. I can actually see this being quite attractive to female riders. The reason I say that is because I know that each time I say to my wife, “Do you want to go there on scooters?”, she just gives me that look.
She’s got nothing against micromobility. She loves her e-bike and she bikes to work almost every day. But there’s just something about standing scooters that don’t sit right with her. Maybe it’s the vulnerable feeling of standing, or the small wheels, or the fact that she can’t put both feet down for stability while moving slowly like she can on a bike. Whatever it is, when we’re out in the city and don’t have our bikes with us, I’ve never been able to convince her to just rent scooters for quick trips. But this… I can see her liking this. She’s loved riding other seated moped-style electric scooters in the past for this very reason – they feel more stable to her. And I’m guessing my wife isn’t unique in that sense.
Of course these won’t only appeal to women. I’d ride a Gen4 Seated Lime scooter too. But the biggest benefit, in my humble opinion, is for all those out there that have previously said, “Nah, a scooter isn’t for me.” Maybe now it is.
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First Solar just cut the ribbon on a huge new factory in Iberia Parish, Louisiana, and it dwarfs the New Orleans Superdome. The company’s $1.1 billion, fully vertically integrated facility spans 2.4 million square feet, or about 11 times the size of the stadium’s main arena.
The factory began production quietly in July, a few months ahead of schedule, and employs more than 700 people. First Solar expects that number to hit 826 by the end of the year. Once it’s fully online, the site will add 3.5 GW of annual manufacturing capacity. That brings the company’s total US footprint to 14 GW in 2026 and 17.7 GW in 2027, when its newly announced South Carolina plant is anticipated to come online.
The Louisiana plant produces First Solar’s Series 7 modules using US-made materials — glass from Illinois and Ohio, and steel from Mississippi, which is fabricated into backrails in Louisiana.
The new factory leans heavily on AI, from computer vision that spots defects on the line to deep learning tools that help technicians make real‑time adjustments.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry says the investment is already a win for the region, bringing in “hundreds of good-paying jobs and new opportunities for Louisiana workers and businesses.” A new economic impact analysis from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette projects that the factory will boost Iberia Parish’s GDP by 4.4% in its first full year at capacity. The average manufacturing compensation package comes in at around $90,000, more than triple the parish’s per capita income.
First Solar CEO Mark Widmar framed the new facility as a major step for US clean energy manufacturing: “By competitively producing energy technology in America with American materials, while creating American jobs, we’re demonstrating that US reindustrialization isn’t just a thesis, it’s an operating reality.”
This site joins what’s already the largest solar manufacturing and R&D footprint in the Western Hemisphere: three factories in Ohio, one in Alabama, and R&D centers in Ohio and California. Just last week, First Solar announced a new production line in Gaffney, South Carolina, to onshore more Series 6 module work. By the end of 2026, the company expects to directly employ more than 5,500 people across the US.
Read more: First Solar pours $330M into a new South Carolina solar factory
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No, it’s not the new Bolt. GM’s design team previewed a new high-riding “sporty Chevrolet EV” that should be brought to life.
Is Chevy launching a new sporty EV?
This is the all-electric vehicle Chevy should sell in the US. General Motors’ design team released a series of sketches previewing a sporty new Chevy EV.
Although it kinda looks like the new 2027 Chevy Bolt EV as a higher-sitting compact crossover SUV, the design offers a fresh take on what it should have looked like.
The new Bolt is essentially a modernized version of the outgoing EUV model with a similar compact crossover silhouette. Nissan adopted a similar style with the new 2026 LEAF as buyers continue shifting from smaller sedans and hatchbacks to crossovers and SUVs.
Will we see the sporty Chevy EV in real life? It’s not likely. For one, the “exploration sketch” is by GM China Advanced designer Charles Huang.
GM Design posted the sketches on its global social media page, but the caption read “Sporty Chevrolet EV for the China Market.”
It’s too bad. The Bolt could use a sporty sibling like an SS variant. Chevy introduced the Blazer EV SS (check out our review) for the 2026 model year, its fastest “SS” model yet. Packing up to 615 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque, the Chevy Blazer SS can race from 0 to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds when using Wide Open Watts (WOW) mode.
Will the Bolt be next? I wouldn’t get my hopes up. And if GM does bring the sporty Chevy EV to life, it will likely only be sold in China. Like all the fun cars these days.
What do you think of the design? Would you buy one of these in the US? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
While deliveries of the 2027 Bolt are set to begin in early 2026, Chevy is offering some sweet deals on its current EV lineup, including up to $4,000 off in Customer Cash and 0% APR financing for 60 months.
Ready to test drive one? You can use our links below to find Chevy Equinox, Blazer, and Silverado EVs at a dealership near you.
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Environment
Podcast: Electricity is the base currency, Tesla Robotaxi crashes, new Porsche Cayenne EV, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss electricity becoming the base currency, Tesla Robotaxi crashes, the new Porsche Cayenne EV, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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