An electric wheelchair developed from personal experience

Why Alex Papanikolaou developed his own electric wheelchair

In brief: electric wheelchairs & user-driven innovation

developed based on the experiences of an electric wheelchair user
focused on reliability, everyday usability, and travel
insights from developer Alex Papanikolaou and user Richard Ebert

Subtitles can be activated if needed. A full transcript of the video can be found further down on this page.

Alex Papanikolaou knows these challenges from personal experience. Because the electric wheelchairs available to him often reached their limits in everyday life and while traveling, he founded Freedom One Life and, together with his team, developed an electric wheelchair designed to address these issues.

The result was the Series 5. The electric wheelchair was developed with a focus on reliability, range, and everyday usability. In the video, Alex explains what continues to drive this vision and how his own experiences have shaped the development process.

These personal insights are complemented by the perspective of Richard Ebert. His experiences highlight what matters most to many electric wheelchair users: reliability, range, and the confidence of being able to move through everyday life with peace of mind.

The fun is, I get to travel all over the world now. And I don’t worry about the chair anymore.

I’m completely relaxed. It drives so smoothly.

Transcript of the video

Alex Papanikolaou: I am very happy to see how this chair changes everyone’s lives.

Richard Ebert: Iwill never give this wheelchair away again. I'm keeping this one. This one's more agile than the other one, right?

It's so fast, and it can go a long way, and I can set the turn signal here.

Alex Papanikolaou: We use automotive gold materials so everything is very high quality. Many, many years of testing and breaking stuff and try again.

The fun is, I get to travel all over the world now. And I don’t worry about the chair anymore because now it doesn‘t brake anymore. I use it every day, all day.

Richard Ebert: I'm absolutely relaxed, and I'm totally chilled.

Click here to get to know more on the history of Freedom One Life

This portrait was generated by AI.

Author: Natascha Mörs | REHACARE.com

Multimedia editor Natascha Mörs has been working with REHACARE.com for almost 20 years. She is especially passionate about exclusive interviews – both with manufacturers of practical assistive devices and with the people whose daily lives they help make easier.

Published on: May 29, 2026