4 months ago
French startup WheelMove demonstrated a compact motorized wheelchair add-on astatine CES 2026 that not only acts arsenic a power-assist device, but tin besides assistance up a chair's mini beforehand wheels truthful it tin thrust complete unsmooth terrain. The accessory upgrades a manual wheelchair pinch a 10-inch other instrumentality and a 250W centrifugal that tin thrust astatine up to six miles per hr (10 kilometers per hour) and grip slopes up to 10 percent, pinch a scope of 15.5 miles (25km). The artillery is swappable, too, truthful a personification could battalion an other for a longer outing to debar having to extremity and recharge.
As nan WheelMove squad showed astatine its booth, nan accessory tin beryllium attached to a wheelchair successful a matter of seconds while seated, and its power sheet tin beryllium strapped onto an armrest aliases moreover a bodypart. There are 5 velocity options, which besides activity to support nan velocity accordant erstwhile a personification is walking connected a downslope. With nan WheelMove attached, its creators opportunity a manual wheelchair personification tin traverse unsmooth and uneven surfaces — for illustration cobblestones, writer and ungraded paths — arsenic good arsenic ramps pinch acold little effort than would usually beryllium required. In immoderate cases, it could unfastened up recreation successful places that would different beryllium wholly inaccessible.
The startup says it's worked pinch wheelchair users who person section tested nan instrumentality for months up of its launch. It weighs little than 8 kilograms (17.6 lbs) and packs up successful a backpack. Pre-orders for nan WheelMove person opened for buyers successful France, wherever it's expected to vessel later this twelvemonth earlier expanding internationally. It costs astir $6,000.
