Swardman Electra won the prestigious German Design Awards 2019

The person with the largest impact on the overall look, as well as on the functional equipment of the mower that has been praised by the jury, is Marek Votroubek, chief designer of Swardman. He is also behind the first Swardman model, the petrol cylinder mower Edwin. Votroubek won the Intel ISEF competition in Nevada (USA) in 2009, the World Junior World Championship in Robot Design.

 “When I was working on Electra, I did not concentrate primarily on its design. My main goal was to preserve all the benefits of cylinder mowers and add new features to bring the lawn care to a new level. In order to keep the development costs and the final price at an acceptable level, I redesigned Edwin's carcass in such a way that the new mower meets all the functional requirements and the resulting design was minimalist and elegant at the same time,” explains Marek Votroubek, designer of Electra, referring to his approach to the design process.

Electra is powered by two independent electric motors, one of 500 W for lawn mowing and the other, 200 W, for the mower’s drive. The batteries have a capacity up to 1.400 square meters (15.000 sqft) of grass area. Electra is started and controlled with a five-button control panel. A big emphasis is placed on easy and intuitive manipulation and free movement without cables. Of course, the main advantage of cylinder mowers is the clean cut of grass on a scissor-like principle. Electra also has several innovative features unprecedented in the category of garden mowers, such as a reverse gear, cruise control or regeneration mode designed for a multifunctional exchangeable cassette system for complete lawn regeneration.

 “The battery-powered Swardman Electra targets people who have an interest in the newest technologies and eco-friendly, battery-powered machines that are significantly quieter than conventional petrol mowers. The noise level of Electra while mowing lays around 70 dB, which is comparable to an electric kettle or typing on a keyboard,” says Tomas Sena, founder and CEO of Swardman, introducing the groundbreaking mower.

“A suave battery-operated mower with individual character. The leading-edge exceptionally quiet electric motors combine with a control system that uses just five buttons to operate all functions including a reverse mode, as well as a predominantly metal body results in a walk-behind mower that convinces in its simplicity, usability and form, “ states the jury of German Design Awards in its evaluation.

ABOUT GERMAN DESIGN AWARDS:

German Design Awards, that have been awarded by the German Design Council since 2012, were founded in 1953 by the German Bundestag. In this year's edition, a jury of fifty renowned design professionals was choosing from 5400 products during a two-day session. Less than 3000 of these came from countries other than Germany. The board nominates and then appraises only the products that are clearly distinguishable for the quality of their design from other competitors.