A JAPANESE startup will introduce an all-terrain electric wheelchair in 2026 that allows users to climb and descend stairs, and board trains and buses without assistance, with plans to develop a model that can navigate escalators.
The wheelchair developed by Lifehub Inc., which normally drives on four wheels on flat surfaces, has caterpillar tracks to negotiate stairs, slopes and uneven ground.
The company's Avest wheelchair adjusts its seat angle while ascending and descending stairs on an incline of up to 40 degrees, Lifehub said. It can travel up to 40 kilometers on a single charge.
While similar stair-climbing wheelchairs are already available, many of them ascend with their occupants facing backward, according to the company.
Lifehub will offer 50 units of the launch edition, priced at 1.5 million yen ($10,000). In Japan, electric wheelchairs are exempt from sales tax.
The Tokyo-based company is developing a new version to allow users to ride escalators without assistance, which would be the first wheelchair in the world with such a capability, Lifehub said.
Lifehub CEO Hiroshi Nakano said at a press event he wants to "solve the challenges faced by wheelchair users with our technologies."
While Lifehub will initially focus on offering the Avest wheelchairs to the disabled, the elderly and those with injuries, it is planning to market them as personal vehicles to move around in places such as shopping malls and large stores, Nakano said. - April 6, 2025
