WheelMove gives manual wheelchairs the power and height to handle rough terrain

French startup WheelMove demonstrated a compact motorized wheelchair add-on at CES 2026 that not only acts as a power-assist device, but can also lift up a chair's small front wheels so it can ride over rough terrain. The accessory upgrades a manual wheelchair with a 10-inch extra wheel and a 250W motor that can drive at up to six miles per hour (10 kilometers per hour) and handle slopes up to 10 percent, with a range of 15.5 miles (25km). The battery is swappable, too, so a person could pack an extra for a longer outing to avoid having to stop and recharge. As the WheelMove team showed at its booth, the accessory can be attached to a wheelchair in a matter of seconds while seated, and its control panel can be strapped onto an armrest or even a bodypart. There are five speed options, [...]