At Puy du Fou, at the Beauval zoo and at Futuroscope, four-wheeled electric scooters are available to visitors with reduced mobility who, without this, would not be able to take advantage of these extensive sites.
Behind this small vehicle, specially adapted for this use, is a company from Deux-Sèvres, Mobilypark. On December 13, 2024, its two creators received one of the four prizes in the Silverstars autonomy competition, awarded by Carsat du Center Ouest, which rewards innovation in favor of seniors.
Initially, a request from Puy du Fou
The prize is an envelope of €50,000. “A real bubble of airsmile partners Léandre Wojnarowski and Hervé Macke. This amount will allow us to continue to self-finance and deploy improvements on future vehicles. »
Murielle Bouin, head of the Gérontopôle de Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Léandre Wojnarowski and Hervé Macke, co-directors of Mobilypark.
© (Photo NR, Jean-André Boutier)
The story of Mobilypark began eight years ago, when Puy du Fou asked Hervé Macke to improve visiting conditions for disabled people. Deux-Sévrien already had solid experience in this area, having designed and marketed in 2004, under the Magelan brand, the MTC, a removable wheel allowing you to use a wheelchair on irregular paths.
A reliable model
With Léandre Wojnarowski, the idea of offering an electric scooter was born. Not the standard model which gave tourist structures a hard time, “unreliable, too fast, not easy to use. We have designed a reliable scooter, for example with solid wheels that do not puncture, which travels at 4.7 km/h, that is to say walking speed.” The first four vehicles tested give satisfaction to the Vendée fleet.
Like self-service bicycles, the vehicle has been designed for intensive use by visitors.
© (Photo Mobilypark)
Today, around sixty of these scooters are in service: “The ten most beautiful leisure spaces in France work with us. » Around thirty additional vehicles will be delivered in the first months of 2025.
They are produced in Asia, the new model costing €4,000 excluding taxes. A reconditioning sector, allowing them to be given a second life, could be developed locally within the framework of the social and solidarity economy.
In town too
Mobilypark also works with a social landlord, to allow tenants to use these scooters on a daily basis in La Rochelle, Poitiers, Rochefort and Niort. In Niort, the scooter crossed the 1,000 km mark in one year, proof of its usefulness. “These people can once again go get their bread, do their little daily errands, go to their medical appointments without needing someone to take them there. »
The scooter is intended for disabled, elderly or temporarily disabled people following an injury for example.
© (Photo Mobilypark)
Mobilypark plans to develop this service, which could also appeal to nursing homes and senior residences: “These vehicles should be democratized in the same way as self-service bicycles. It's an opportunity for city centers, for example, to be revitalized by bringing in people who are staying at home because they can't walk. »
The project was supported by the Gérontopôle de Nouvelle-Aquitaine: “This last kilometer is extremely complicated when you don't walk well, when you have pain, when you are less mobileunderlines its manager Murielle Bouin. This allows us to restore mobility, to get people out again. »
