Vespa to go ‘Elettrica’

Words by Ajinkya Nair

Vespa calls it the ‘Elettrica’, which is Italian for ‘Electrical’, and rightly so. It is powered by a lithium-ion battery which generates a peak power of 4kW which takes about 4 hours to charge from either a household plug or a public charging station. The Italian firm guarantees 100km from a single charge. The Elettrica also gets two riding modes – Power and Eco. The Eco mode limits the speed of the scooter to just 30kmph. The battery is good for 1000 cycles, which would ideally make it last for about 50,000 to 70,000 kilometers, before requiring a battery change. An ‘X’ variant would too be launched, which features a generator along with the battery which is expected to double the claimed range.

Its 4.3-inch TFT dash displays a lot of information, including notification of messages, calls, remaining battery charge, and so on. All of this can be controlled with a joystick placed on the right hand side of the handle bar. Meanwhile, the styling is textbook Vespa, similar to its other models, and gets seven colour variants. The Elettrica has been designed keeping urban usability in mind, and would be out on sale in Europe by 2018. Piaggio India hasn’t commented anything about plans for an Indian launch.