Charging Stack Podcast: Redefining Urban Riding with SOL Motors’ Pocket Rocket

Stuttgart is famous for big engines and car-heavy streets. SOL Motors is building the opposite: a light, quiet “noped” that treats design, practicality, and sustainability as one package.

In this Charging Stack episode, Filip and Marin sit down with Manuel Messmer, CEO and founder of SOL Motors, to talk about the making of the Pocket Rocket – a minimalist, award-winning light EV that sits between an e-bike and a moped and is built for everyday urban use.

You’ll hear how a teenage love for mopeds, a background in industrial design, and frustration with car-centric cities turned into a new category of light EV.

What SOL Motors is building

SOL Motors is a Stuttgart-based mobility company focused on lightweight, fully electric two-wheelers with:

• A distinct tubular frame that doubles as structure and design
• Removable, 16 kg battery integrated into the top tube
• A hub motor in the rear wheel, with no chain or belt
• Two main models: Pocket Rocket (45 km/h) and Pocket Rocket S (up to 85 km/h)

The Pocket Rocket is designed as a “noped”: not a moped, not an e-bike, but something in between. It’s meant for riders who want something lighter and more playful than a motorcycle, but more capable and road-legal than a bicycle with a motor strapped on.

Who this episode is for:

• Urban riders looking for a light EV that actually fits daily city traffic
• Design and product people who care how form, engineering, and regulations meet
• Micromobility founders and operators exploring new vehicle formats beyond scooters and e-bikes
• City officials and planners thinking about space, noise, and emissions from a two-wheeler perspective
• EV and moto enthusiasts who love clean design and want to understand the thinking behind it

In this episode, you’ll learn:

⚡ Why Manuel created a new “noped” category between e-bikes and mopeds
⚡ How the Pocket Rocket’s minimalist frame and integrated battery went from sketch to road-legal product
⚡ Why removable batteries matter for city riders without garages or home chargers
⚡ How regulations on speed, power, and licensing shape what light EVs can be
⚡ Where SOL Motors wants to take light EVs next – from solar charging to platform-based vehicles

Topics covered include

• How Manuel’s mix of industrial design background and teenage moped culture shaped the Pocket Rocket idea and SOL’s design-led approach.
• Why simply electrifying classic mopeds with fake fuel tanks made no sense, and how SOL started from the constraints and possibilities of batteries and electric drive instead.
• The thinking behind the “noped” term – why Pocket Rocket doesn’t fit neatly into existing moped or e-bike boxes and what that means for users and regulators.
• How the triangle frame and tubular top tube came together as both a visual signature and a practical way to integrate the battery, electronics, and vulnerable parts in a compact, vandal-resistant body.
• Why the weight distribution (battery in the top tube, hub motor in the rear wheel) works in practice, how it feels on the road, and what early test riders got wrong just from looking at photos.
• The differences between Pocket Rocket (45 km/h) and Pocket Rocket S (up to 85 km/h), who each model is for, and why being able to “swim with traffic” is a key safety factor in cities.
• Why Manuel believes current speed limits and licensing rules for light vehicles in Europe are holding back safer designs, and what he would change first if he could.
• How removable batteries unlock practical everyday use: charging in apartments, at the office, in cafés, or from caravans and vans, without needing fixed on-street chargers.
• The role of shared, simple charging for light EVs: from standardised plugs to smart chargers that adapt to different batteries, and how cities could treat sockets as a basic urban amenity.
• A frank take on autonomous vehicles and flying taxis – where they might make sense and where they feel like tech looking for a problem, compared to simple, human-scale EVs.
• Why cities like Paris, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam show what happens when you reclaim street space from cars and put bikes and light EVs at the centre of mobility planning.
• SOL Motors’ longer-term vision: extending the Pocket Rocket platform into more use cases, adding solar charging options, planning for repair and circularity, and becoming a trusted brand for serious, design-led micromobility.

Subscribe to Charging Stack for more podcast episodes, deep dives, and case studies with the people keeping the future of mobility running. ⚡