San Antonio’s newest form of downtown transportation has six doors, tiny tires and large windows.
These new electric vehicles are called SaGO, a free service intended to give locals and tourists short-distance rides across downtown San Antonio and nearby locations.
Owned and operated by Liz and Kevin Mancha, SaGO has five vehicles that since late December have been transporting people to and from downtown locations and surrounding areas like the Pearl, Southtown, the St. Mary’s Strip, and the Dignowity Hill Historic District.
“If I work at the Frost Tower and I want to have brunch [in Hemisfair], I don’t want to walk there,” Kevin Mancha said. “If I grab a trolley real quick, I’m not sweaty by the time I get back. … We understand the need of quick trips when it’s cold or hot.”
There are no set routes; to get a lift on what the Manchas call their e-trollies, riders text SaGO at 210-660-6939. Wait times average 10 to 15 minutes, but the Manchas say more drivers and vehicles will decrease wait times once the company is fully staffed.
The Manchas launched the startup after seeing a need for short-distance travel. They heard from rideshare drivers that short-distance trips aren’t always worth the pay, and other options for short-distance travel in downtown focus on the tourist experience.
“We’re bridging that gap between getting from here to the Alamo or from the Alamo to Market Square, not from the Alamo to the airport,” Kevin Mancha said.
As the vehicles cruise around downtown at about 20 miles per hour, people turn and look.
The small vehicles are narrower than an average car but feel spacious inside. Each seat has its own door and window to roll down. The SaGO’s top speed is 25 miles per hour, and as a low-speed vehicle is allowed only on surface streets with speed limits of 35 mph or less.
The vehicle, called the GEM e6, is manufactured by Waev in California as an environmentally-friendly alternative to gas-burning cars.
SaGO operates two to three e-trollies per shift, daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
SaGO’s owners plan to add a mobile app soon that will expand the access to SAGO, allowing passengers to request a ride on demand.
Like most cars, the e-trolley will also navigate heavy traffic during the city’s most popular events downtown like Fiesta, but passengers say they choose to board the ride for its unique shape and the fact that it’s free.
“It feels kind of like a golf cart, but this one is enclosed, so it feels more comfy,” said Hugo Trinidad, a tourist visiting from Dallas with his family, who accompanied their 12-year-old daughter, Zoe, on a school field trip to visit the Alamo. His favorite part? “The experience, and it’s free.”
The family waved the trolley down near the Alamo to get to their car parked a five-minute walk away.
“The moment we saw it, we said ‘That’s cute. Let’s take it,'” Trinidad said.
Mancha said he is able to make SaGO a free service by selling advertising to display on the vehicles and with local partnerships.
For now, the company has three private funders and two sponsors: Tony’s Siesta and SideCars, another transportation business venture the Manchas launched in 2019 that transports people on Vespa scooters fitted with sidecars.
“We want to make sure it’s free always,” he said. “You have people [in downtown], working and already paying for parking. … This new microtransit option for the city [is to] move people.”
