How Do You Like Vespa’s First Electric Scooter?

“A contemporary work of art with a technological heart.” – Piaggio Gregory Peck rode it with Audrey Hepburn in the movie Roman Holi...

“A contemporary work of art with a technological heart.” – Piaggio

Gregory Peck rode it with Audrey Hepburn in the movie Roman Holiday. Countless other celebrities owned one—Marlon Brando and Dean Martin, amongst them. There are others who have been seen riding one, such as the likes of Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman and Cameron Diaz. Even Michael Schumacher had one in Ferrari red with his name emblazoned on the side. The list goes on and on. The Vespa is an iconic brand, there’s no mistake about that. Now, you would see college students, young working execs or even social influencers riding and/or endorsing the scooter. It has become a lifestyle brand.

Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn in a scene from Roman Holiday.

With the whole world getting the electric vibe, the iconic scooter marque has finally revealed a new electric scooter too. The engineers and designers didn’t really want to ruffle the feathers of the purists, so they retained the basic shape and look, and only made changes to its motor. The Electtrica was initially announced in 2016 EICMA in Milan but is now set for global distribution on 2018.

It delivers a continuous 2 kW energy, with a peak power of 4 kW, for a performance that Piaggio said is “superior to a traditional 50cc scooter”. The manufacturer claims it can go as far as 100 km (62 miles) on a single charge, which is doubled in the Elettrica X by coupling the electric motor to a power generator (a hybrid). It takes four hours to completely charge, which is a bummer, but it’ll be good for urban riding.

The Elettrica’s 4.3-inch TFT display offers four levels of brightness and can adapt to different lighting conditions. It is also Bluetooth-enabled, allowing the display to show incoming messages.

The state-of-the-art Vespa Multimedia Platform is a multimedia system that allows the rider to connect a smartphone to the vehicle. This is managed through a novel man-machine interface, with full digital color instrumentation on a thin-film-transistor (TFT) liquid-crystal display. So, it is a silent, environmentally friendly and technologically advanced vehicle. Cool, eh?

Piaggio claims that the Elettrica runs silently, “helping to make cities less chaotic and more livable, while also countering pollution from an acoustic point of view”. Vespa’s Elettrica and Elettrica X are Piaggio's contribution to freeing up cities from greenhouse gas and noise pollution. The Elettrica will be built at Piaggio’s Pontedera facilities beginning later this year.

Keeping our fingers crossed that it comes to Malaysia at a reasonable price.