WSMV Channel 4 Bulger's Beat: Local man hopes to cash in with electric scooters

A Nashville man has an idea so big it could change the way people get around town. His idea is a high-quality electric scooter.

Four years ago, James Arledge took a trip to China and had what he calls a "Shanghai moment." In the city of Shanghai, he saw electric scooters everywhere and wondered, 'why not here?'

Now, the idea is reality in the form of a high-tech, high-quality, no-gasoline option to move around.

"The day's nice. You have the right situation, I think 'I'll take the scooter,'" Arledge said.

And all of it is a one-man operation.

Arledge designed, built and will now try to sell his gas-free scooters. But the road to perfection is sometimes filled with the signs of failure.

"Well, it's the graveyard of things that didn't quite work out," he said, looking at piles of proteges, the botched and bungled, and the fruitless frustration that comes with invention.

"Most people just don't have the stomach for it. It's just failure after failure after failure after failure. Just have to get used to it," Arledge said.

So, Arledge had to go back to the drawing board in search of a gas-free formula that works for the driver and the planet.

"Don't consider myself a tree hugger, but I'm starting to act more and more like it," he said.

Arledge made his money making sure pianos in every Music Row studio sounded right. That worked out fine, but now he hopes he is in-tune on this project.

"What I've learned is people either get it or they don't. I don't know why I can sell people on the idea. Either this fills their need or it doesn't," he said.

James Arledge's scooters can travel up to 50 mph and will travel 50 miles before you need to plug them back in.

The beauty of it all is you don't need a charging station. His science allows the scooters to plug right into a regular, 110-volt outlet, which is the same thing you use to fire up a coffee pot.

So if you're planning to travel a longer distance, just pack an extension cord and you'll be good to go.

For more information on the gas-free scooters, visit: http://nogasamerica.com/

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