Style and Substance
Oscar Morgan - Bo CEO - August 2025
Design isn’t just about looking good, it’s about making Bo the best premium electric scooter experience on the road
An early memory from secondary school was when the coolest kid in class bought a Giant mountain bike. I don’t mean the bike was enormous: it was from the brand ‘Giant’.
For a twelve-year-old this was elite transport technology. Front suspension from Rockshox and twenty-seven gears: three at the front, nine at the back.
Most of all, it was just so damn cool. The whole package, the look of the suspension, the Giant colours and branding. Even the glint of new disc brake rotors. The thing was a feast for our young eyes.
I remember literally aching to have a bike that cool. At the time I devised myriad different schemes and solutions to get one, repeatedly recalculating my pocket money trajectory in the hope I would live long enough to save the necessary cash. Had I lived nearer a county line drug route the pursuit of that bike might have been my gateway into criminality.
That feeling - the raw emotional pull of a beautiful object - became a reference point as we designed Bo.
Because while performance and quality always mattered, we knew Bo had to be a scooter that could also make someone feel that same ache. One that would turn heads. One that, as a Bo rider, you couldn’t stop looking at.
Why don’t other electric scooters look like Bo?
That clean, sculptural silhouette you see on the Bo M, it didn’t happen by accident or easily.
In fact, maintaining that seamless, iconic form that makes the Model M so instantly visually identifiable is the result of a thousand arguments, hundreds of unnecessary expenses, dozens of complex manufacturing tools.
Truthfully, it would’ve been a whole lot easier to do what most e-scooter brands do - Segway, Xiaomi, etc, and assemble a hodgepodge Franken-scooter out of catalog parts.
But that’s just not Bo. We came here with this crazy mission to create a vehicle that would mean we Enjoy Every Journey, so instead of grabbing what was “good enough,” we argued over millimetres.
Over five years of design and engineering we redesigned mounts, concealed bolts, and rerouted entire internal layouts just to protect the design integrity. That clean look is the result of countless trade-offs, always in service of our riders and our rider's enjoyment.
Form vs function? The answer is “yes, both.”
Every compromise that would've made the vehicle easier to engineer - but uglier or worse to use - got thrown out.
If there's something that made the Bo design process special, it's a team that did not believe in form or function. We believe in a constant negotiation between the two seeking the outcome where both sides win.
When those goals clashed, we didn't just pick one: we found a new alternative. Every curve, every flush panel, every barely-visible seam exists because we made the choice to respect both the user experience and the aesthetics.
Does this design make the ride better?
Does it make it more beautiful to live with?
If it didn’t achieve both it didn’t make the cut.
Designed to be felt, not just seen
This is where Bo’s claim to be the best electric scooter for UK and US riders really comes to life. Because the experience of owning a Bo isn’t just about riding.
It’s about walking up to it with a sense of pride, before admiring the way the kickstand retracts automatically.
It’s about pressing the power lozenge and feeling a satisfying click, not a mushy button like on most scooters.
It’s about the welcoming tone on startup, and the subtle lighting animation that makes the whole thing feel alive.
Every detail is a little conversation between you and the scooter, reminders that someone, somewhere, really gave a damn.
That’s what separates Bo from Segway, or Bo from Xiaomi, or Bo from basically any other electric scooter brand. It's this commitment to making the most joyful, considered premium scooter you can ride.
Lifting the street, one ride at a time
It's always the case, as a vehicle transitions from prototype to production it is at maximum risk of compromise. This is because there is such cost and time pressure, designs tend to die the death of a thousand cuts. In Bo, that risk was met with relentless protection of what made it special.
Scooters, for the most part, are not beautiful objects. Honestly, most look like the leftovers from a bike factory clearance sale. And yet Bo manages to take this same form factor and turn it into something genuinely uplifting and inspiring. This unique shape catches the eye, especially when it is in motion.
The response from passers-by as you carve down the road speaks volumes: Bo is an object that lifts up the streets it rides on.
What Is This Series About?
This post is part of a blog series where we’ll look at how Bo stacks up against some of the most popular electric scooters in the UK and USA. From the Segway Ninebot GMax, to Pure Electric, Navee, Xiaomi, Apollo, and more.
If you’re currently Googling:
- “Best electric scooter UK 2025”
- “Segway GMax vs Bo”
- “Electric scooter with hill power”
- “Alternatives to Segway, Carrera or Haiboy”
- “What’s better than Segway GMax?”
Welcome: you’re in the right place.
Previously: we've been getting in deep with a close look at the details that actually make Bo better to live with, day in, day out. The Bo details article
Link to Bo Model-M: https://bo.world/pages/bo-m
We’re glad you’re here.
