And the Most Confusing Car-Brand-e-Scooter-Mashup at CES Award Goes To...
One of the world's most expensive and fastest cars enjoys a scooter spin-off.
There are a lot of amazing things to see at CES 2025, like a Honda prototype that looks like a Lamborghini, a Chinese electric mini-van fit for a king, and even an Italian-American self-driving bus.
But what on earth is a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport doing, tucked away in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s central hall, in a semi-official, kinda janky-looking booth surrounded by what appears to be… scooters? Let’s investigate.
Upon approach we confirm it is definitely a Bugatti Chiron Super Sport, which first debuted in 2019 and we last drove in 2022. More shocking than the Chiron’s 1580 horsepower and cool $3.8-million sticker price when new, is the strangeness of the W16-powered hypercar in a smallish booth, with an enormous Bugatti wordmark positioned directly behind it, flanked by some adult-sized scooters and a couple of chunky stands that turn out to be charging docks.
Why Is This So Weird
The relaunch of Bugatti occurred when the global auto show scene was still in its golden era. The circuit of tier 1 autoshows consisted of major international cities like Detroit, Geneva, Frankfurt, New York, Paris, and Tokyo. But ultra exclusive Bugatti would rarely display at shows other than Geneva, or, more recently at The Quail, a super pricey and exclusive motorsports gathering, on the Friday of Monterey Car Week. And while you can see Bugattis at your nicer cars and coffees and occasionally as show vehicles at other trade shows like SEMA, it’s a rare thing to see an official Bugatti stand anywhere. And when you do, they are usually large, impressively designed spaces that showcase the latest special edition Franco-German hypercars, with glass walls and minders to keep the riffraff at bay—which to be fair, were at this CES display had.
What’s Going On?
Emblazoned with large gold-toned EB logos for Ettore Bugatti, EB embossed handgrips, and the iconic, white-over-red oval logo, the electric scooters are definitely striking upon closer inspection. Turns out they're the result of a licensing deal by Bytech, a company that describes itself as “an active trendsetter in the mobile accessories industry, with its offices in the iconic Coney Island area of NYC.”
This means Bytech purchased the rights to produce and sell electric scooters bearing the Bugatti logo, which, to be fair happens all the time across many industries, as shown at CES as well as in other areas of Bytech’s booth, which showed other electronic accessories from the brands iHome, CaseDesign, and Gaiam, which is known for yoga mats, clothing and accessories. If you can believe it, we've actually seen this scooter before—at the 2022 CES—though we just had to dive in deeper this time around and get the fuller picture of why.
How Much Does a Bugatti Electric Scooter Cost?
CES being a tradeshow meant for dealers and distributors, there were no retail prices listed for Bugatti-e-scooters, but Googling “Bugatti electric scooter” brought up ads from Dick’s Sporting Goods and Kohl’s with prices around $1,200 for what appears to be the Bugatti 9. According to Bytech’s site devoted to Bugatti scooters, there are two other models, the Bugatti 9 pro, and Bugatti 10. Top speeds of the scooters are 18 mph for the 9 and 9 pro, and 22 mph for the 10, while range is between 20-25 miles for the 9 and 9 pro and 30 to 37 miles for the 10, depending on rider weight and road conditions. Charge time is approximately four hours for the 9 and 9 pro, and eight hours for the Bugatti 10. Other unique features of the Bugatti e-scooters are the magnesium chassis, ABS rear brakes, cruise control, and a rear “puddle lamp” that projects a white EB logo on the ground, as luxury cars often do from the side mirrors. Full specs on the scooters can be found here.
While $1,200 may seem steep, it’s actually pretty mid when it comes to electric scooters, which start at a few hundred dollars and can top out around $4,000. So consider this the best bang for your Bugatti buck.
While it’s fun to pick on a display that's jarringly offbrand, kudos to Bytech for bringing a product to market that literally no one has ever thought of, and all of their other automotive licensing deals that seem a little more on brand all. In separate displays behind the Chiron SS, Bytech showed off a new Dodge Charger and “Dodge Bros” branded e-bike that actually looked pretty sweet, a Jeep Wrangler and off-roady electric scooter collab, and BMW i4 and sporty electric scooter (the Ultimate Scooting Machine?).
Still upset on Ettore Bugatti’s behalf, take it up with the genius at Bugatti who did the licensing deal.
I used to go kick tires with my dad at local car dealerships. I was the kid quizzing the sales guys on horsepower and 0-60 times, while Dad wandered around undisturbed. When the salesmen finally cornered him, I'd grab as much of the glossy product literature as I could carry. One that still stands out to this day: the beautiful booklet on the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX that favorably compared it to the Porsches of the era. I would pore over the prose, pictures, specs, trim levels, even the fine print, never once thinking that I might someday be responsible for the asterisked figures "*as tested by Motor Trend magazine." My parents, immigrants from Hong Kong, worked their way from St. Louis, Missouri (where I was born) to sunny Camarillo, California, in the early 1970s. Along the way, Dad managed to get us into some interesting, iconic family vehicles, including a 1973 Super Beetle (first year of the curved windshield!), 1976 Volvo 240, the 1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic station wagon, and 1984 VW Vanagon. Dad imbued a love of sports cars and fast sedans as well. I remember sitting on the package shelf of his 1981 Mazda RX-7, listening to him explain to my Mom - for Nth time - what made the rotary engine so special. I remember bracing myself for the laggy whoosh of his turbo diesel Mercedes-Benz 300D, and later, his '87 Porsche Turbo. We were a Toyota family in my coming-of-age years. At 15 years and 6 months, I scored 100 percent on my driving license test, behind the wheel of Mom's 1991 Toyota Previa. As a reward, I was handed the keys to my brother's 1986 Celica GT-S. Six months and three speeding tickets later, I was booted off the family insurance policy and into a 1983 Toyota 4x4 (Hilux, baby). It took me through the rest of college and most of my time at USC, where I worked for the Daily Trojan newspaper and graduated with a biology degree and business minor. Cars took a back seat during my stint as a science teacher for Teach for America. I considered a third year of teaching high school science, coaching volleyball, and helping out with the newspaper and yearbook, but after two years of telling teenagers to follow their dreams, when I wasn't following mine, I decided to pursue a career in freelance photography. After starving for 6 months, I was picked up by a tiny tuning magazine in Orange County that was covering "The Fast and the Furious" subculture years before it went mainstream. I went from photographer-for-hire to editor-in-chief in three years, and rewarded myself with a clapped-out 1989 Nissan 240SX. I subsequently picked up a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ60) to haul parts and camera gear. Both vehicles took me to a more mainstream car magazine, where I first sipped from the firehose of press cars. Soon after, the Land Cruiser was abandoned. After a short stint there, I became editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Sport Compact Car just after turning 30. My editorial director at the time was some long-haired dude with a funny accent named Angus MacKenzie. After 18 months learning from the best, Angus asked me to join Motor Trend as senior editor. That was in 2007, and I've loved every second ever since.
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