by Gabrielle DeSantis

Polestar might have a new, less-expensive 2 out, but the Swedish brand has more electric vehicle news to share. Only this time, it’s of the two-wheeled EV variety. Polestar has partnered up with fellow Swedish EV brand Cake on a special version of the latter’s new Makka electric scooter. And one of the Makka Polestar edition’s features might strike a chord for Honda Motocompo fans.

Cake and Polestar team up to make one Swede limited-edition Makka electric scooter

Spec	Cake Makka Flex
Motor	Permanent-magnet rear hub motor
Power	5 hp
Rear-wheel torque	44 lb-ft
Top speed	28 mph
Battery capacity	1.5 kWh
Claimed range	31 miles
Curb weight with battery	145 lbs

Up until now, Cake has only offered electric dirt bikes and motorcycles. That even includes the Ösa+ and Lite, which are more like Honda Monkey-style mini-bikes. However, while the Cake Makka has Ösa-like modular capabilities, it’s an electric scooter, RideApart reports. And not a motorized scooter, but a true electric scooter with a seat.

Here in the US, Cake only offers the Makka in Flex form. Overseas customers get another trim option, the Makka Range. As its name suggests, it has a longer range—35 miles instead of the Flex’s 30. And it’s about $300 cheaper. But because it’s designed to fit under European driver’s license rules, its top speed is just 15 mph. As a result, it likely wouldn’t be street-legal in most parts of the US, while the Flex is.

While it’s not exactly fast, the Cake Makka Flex does have proper motorcycle tires and disc brakes with regenerative braking. It also has a TFT display, integrated lighting, an Ohlins RWU fork, and a preload-adjustable rear shock. Plus, its modular design makes it easy to attach accessories like a cargo basket, rear rack, passenger seat, or pannier bags.

However, the Cake Makka Polestar edition has a few extra goodies on top of that. Some, such as the blacked-out trim, and ‘Polestar Snow’ frame and battery-cover finish, are merely cosmetic, RideApart notes. But this limited-edition electric scooter has some functional upgrades, too, such as an Ohlins rear shock and a new LED headlight.

And then there are the changes that make it a spiritual Honda Motocompo successor.

How the Cake Makka Polestar edition takes a page from the Honda Motocompo’s book

Major Japanese cities suffered the same traffic problems in the 1980s as they do today. Compact kei cars were and are still a common solution. However, even they couldn’t always deal with the heavy congestion that forced drivers to park far away from their destinations. Some automakers, though, tried tackling this secondary headache in often creative ways. And Honda’s idea is arguably the most memorable: the Motocompo scooter.

Those who bought a Honda City Turbo II back in the 1980s didn’t get a spare tire in their turbocharged hatchback. Instead, they got a folding Honda Motocompo scooter designed to fit precisely within the City Turbo II’s cargo area. With only 2.5 hp and a 19-mph top speed, the Motocompo isn’t fast. But then, speed isn’t the point; utility and convenience are.

And that’s where the Cake Makka Polestar edition takes a page from the Motocompo’s playbook. Polestar designed a tow-bar attachment for the 2 specifically to hold the Makka. So, while the Cake scooter can’t fold up into the trunk, you can bring it with you, park the car, and ride it to your destination. That’s a boon in many European cities as they start transitioning to car-free zones, RideApart explains. Plus, the scooter recharges via a special port on the Polestar 2.

How can you get one of these limited-edition electric scooters?

RELATED: BMW Has an Electric Scooter Again: The Sharp 2022 CE 04

The standard Cake Makka Flex, the ‘clean,’ starts at $3800; accessories range from $100-$290 extra. As of this writing, though, Cake hasn’t released pricing details for the Polestar edition. But considering regular production is sold out until March 2022, there’s time to get on the waiting list. Also, at least initially, the Makka Polestar edition will only be available in Sweden, Norway, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

However, you don’t have to buy the limited-edition Makka to get the Polestar 2 attachment. The tow-bar and charging port are compatible with all Makkas, not just the Polestar edition. But as of this writing, Polestar hasn’t released US availability or pricing details.

Still, an electric take on the Honda Motocompo is a refreshing concept.

Follow more updates from MotorBiscuit on our Facebook page.

RELATED: The New Honda U-BE Electric Scooter Costs Less Than $500

The post Cake’s Makka Polestar Edition Is an Electric Honda Motocompo appeared first on MotorBiscuit.

by Gabrielle DeSantis

Ever since the Russians shot Sputnik into space back in 1957, rocket boosters and space junk has been collecting stardust in the night sky. And while we’re not at Wall-E levels of satellites in orbit just yet, we get closer each day. Not only that, but the abundance of space junk is and potentially dangerous. And if we don’t start cleaning up, we may never make it to the far reaches of space again.

How much space junk is up there right now?

SpaceX pioneering the reusable rocket may offset the amount of space junk floating around in the future, but we may already be in too deep. According to NASA, there are approximately 3,000 defunct satellites, 23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball, half a million pieces of debris the size of a marble, and 100 million tiny metal flecks about a millimeter long.

And every year, 100 tons of space junk is said to crash down on earth. Most of it lands in the ocean or, if it’s small enough, burns up in the atmosphere. But many countries, such as China, have developed “anti-satellite” technologies. In the event that a defunct satellite or rocket booster is on a collision course with the country, they’ll fire a missile to push the junk back into orbit.

In the short term, that counterattack works. But the issue comes from satellites exploding into thousands of pieces. And while a piece of junk the size of a pea sounds harmless, in deep space, it’s as dangerous as ever.

Space junk starts to get dangerous when it crashes into itself

Space junk travels at speeds of 17,500 mph. For context, a pea traveling that fast would have over 100 trillion horsepower (roughly determined by speed and time it’d take to complete a quarter-mile). But jokes aside, getting hit by something the size of a pebble at that speed would put a gaping hole through any satellite it hits.

But the problem doesn’t end there. If you throw a ball through a glass window, the glass shatters and falls straight down, as does the ball. Do that in zero gravity at high speed, the glass creates a wall of shards, and the ball doesn’t lose any momentum. This creates thousands more bits of debris, which will inevitably hit other things. Then those collisions will cause other collisions, and so on, and so on.

This endangers so many aspects of our society beyond space travel. Do you use a GPS, a cell phone, or the internet? The answer to all of those (or at least the last one) is likely yes. And if satellites start going down due to cataclysmic chain reactions, you’d better start learning how to use a map.

It even poses a threat for the International Space Station on a yearly basis, which has to perform evasive maneuvers to dodge concerning pieces of space junk. After all, a hit to the station could tear it apart, and result in the loss of a trillion-dollar international project and possibly lives.

The saddest part about all this is that we may already be past the tipping point. With countless dead satellites, boosters, and tiny slivers of junk orbiting the earth, we’re slowly boxing ourselves in. And the space travel we’ve been dreaming of may soon come to an end.

RELATED: Porsche Joins the Space Race: Invests in Isar Aerospace

Will space travel come to an end someday?

If we surround the earth with high-speed shards of metal, glass, and material, getting a rocket into space may become impossible. Upon exiting the atmosphere, the rocket itself would be ripped apart and explode, even if it’s made from the strongest materials. And that could very well create more space junk, pushing our efforts back for years.

And while there are efforts to reverse this growing problem, such as sending nets and magnets to space to collect junk, those aren’t the popular solutions. According to Space.com, it’d require new satellites and be incredibly expensive. Government agencies and private organizations are more focused on limiting how much space junk they create in the first place.

For starters, a spacecraft must use every bit of its fuel in order to prevent an unexpected explosion. And if a booster or dead satellite has some extra fuel to burn, it might be pushed into an orbit hundreds of miles above our working satellites.

But for now, the key strategy is to track any potential collision, so that we can prepare for the consequences. That, paired with limiting how much junk we put in the sky, might just keep the dreams of space travel alive. At least a while longer.

RELATED: The SpaceX Way of Traveling Space Takes 37 Engines!

The post Space Junk Is Clogging up the Sky, and Could Be Dangerous. appeared first on MotorBiscuit.