UK’s Zapp e-scooters to be sold at Selfridges
Upmarket department store Selfridges will soon begin selling British electric scooters.
When you think of Selfridges you obviously think of two-wheelers, right? Specifically two-wheelers from the British electric scooter brand Zapp.
Well, perhaps you soon will. Starting next month, the Zapp i300 scooter will be sold at Selfridges’ iconic London location on Oxford Street. According to EV-focused website The Pack, the scooters will be sold as part of a Selfridges partnership with “experiential technology specialist” Smartech.
Attempting to figure out exactly what Smartech is - other than an upselling middle man - is difficult and will send you down a lot of rabbit holes, but its offerings are pretty wide-ranging: everything from electric toothbrushes and gaming consoles, to dubious electronic devices promising to cure horses of arthritis.
But, hey, exposure is exposure, and Zapp is hoping this could lead to its scooter being sold at other Smartech locations in Berlin, Rome, and New York.
“Selfridges is a global destination for iconic brands and shoppers following the latest design trends,” says Zapp CEO David McIntyre. “Partnering with Smartech puts i300 in front of urban riders who demand style, performance, and innovation, while integrating seamlessly with our hybrid distribution model.”
Nominally London-based Zapp was founded in 2017 and has had a bumpy ride to this point. It had initially promised to deliver the i300 scooter - currently its only product - in 2019, but didn’t actually present a functioning version of its “high-performance city bike capable of motorcycle levels of performance” until 2022.
It suffered a huge financial knock the following year when - still not actually producing any vehicles - it saw its stock plummet. Finally, after a cash injection of $10 million, it said in 2024 that it would finally begin production of the scooters.
Presumably that did actually happen, since Selfridges is planning to sell them in just a matter of weeks. This may have something to do with the fact that Zapp founder Swin Chatsuwan resigned as the company’s director back in May, according to filings with Companies House.
In a November 2023 Guardian article about Zapp's catastrophic stock market decline, an unnamed source told the newspaper: “Swin gives the impression he is the Steve Jobs of scooters. He sees something that you do not understand. He is a bit full of himself.”
Now with seemingly new leadership and a new website (which was so quickly/amateurishly put up that it still has a WordPress favicon), it's certain the Zapp is hoping this Selfridges/Smartech partnership will lead to a better, more stable future.
Meanwhile, selling motorbikes and scooters in big chain stores isn’t completely unheard of. American department store Sears sold a number of motorcycle models in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. Made for Sears by several different companies - including Puch and Gilera - the bikes are now collector items in the States.
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Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
