Bird, the electric scooter startup that helped kick off the shared micromobility boom, is doubling down on personal ownership. Over the weekend, the company unveiled its new, foldable electric scooter, the Bird Air, which can be purchased for $599.
It isn’t the most powerful scooter on the market, with a top speed of 16 mph (25 km/h) and a range of 16 miles (25 km). But at $599, the Bird Air is significantly cheaper than the company’s first retail scooter, the Bird One, which retails for $1,299. That puts the Bird Air in the same category as other mid-priced electric scooters like the Razor E Prime III or Segway Ninebot’s Max.
The Bird Air is designed in-house by Bird’s team of “aerospace and automotive engineers,” the company says —…