TheScooterScoop » Electric

Yamaha taking electrics REAL serious

Steve Guzman — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:00:05 +0000

In an unexpected move for any of the Big4 (HYSK – Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki), Yamaha has placed a full page ad ,(apparently) for the E-2 electric scooter in today’s Tokyo newspaper. I’m not exactly sure why we are seeing “E-2″ featured when I was expecting to see something called the EC-03 or Passol-L. I do see “EC-03 & PAS” there at the bottom and perhaps someone can chime in with some help with figuring all that out.

According to our man-on-the-street, Akisan, motorbikes are never advertised in the paper. Motorbikes are getting bad reputation in the eyes of the younger generation for the number of accidents and their association with bōsōzoku.

Perhaps Yamaha sees a clean-cut, peace-sign-thowing, earth-friendly electric as a means of cleaning up the motorbiker image? Whatever the reason, they chunked an impressive pile of ¥en at the idea to make it happen.

From what we know about the aluminum-alloy framed EC-03, it’s got a 50V 14Ah Lithum-ion battery that can push it along at 18 mph (on a flat surface) for a distance of 26 miles with a 6 hour charge time; similar performance to what we saw from the UltraMotor A2B Metro… maybe a bit of a longer distance.

I personally hope this electric “personal commuter” receives a warm welcome form the Japanese consumer. Yamaha only has plans to release 1,000 units of the EC-03 this year starting September 1st, 2010 in the Tokyo Metropolitan area and all over Japan starting TODAY.

Mini continues to tease – E Scooter

Steve Guzman — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:54:51 +0000

The Paris Motor Show is scheduled to kick off in another week and a half and already, one of the big discussions, is about a new electric concept scooter from WHO of all people? Mini. What you see above is a leaked shot of the throughly pimped out scoot with it’s green to gold color shifting paint job and stitched leather “interior”. Seems pretty fleshed out and it looks WAY better than the Disney inspired thing they teased us with for April Fools day 2006. You can go to MotorTrend to see lots more images of all three colors or go to GirlRacer for lots of tasty background on the design. This one has a rear electric motor, though it looks like they could fit a hub motor in the front wheel too, and iPhone instrumentation to narrow down their consumer segment even more. An eye-rolling nuisance to some, but I’m geeking out about tweeting my every turn (I kid, I kid).

Oh! And here’s another shot of the green wonder. What do you think? Looks a tiny bit familiar to me, but I just can’t place it. Not the Yamaha Cuxi 100. I’m not sure what. Take a closer look and tell me what you think about the design. We know that the Mini E Scooter concept will be powered by a Lithium Ion battery but we’ll have to hold out another week or so before we know what kind of motor is moving this concept.

Also coming in with their “ME TOO!” concept is Smart with their Smart Escooter. The design is very alien, but it’s growing on me.

***UPDATE 9/24/2010***
Ladies and gentlemen, we have video!

And (thanks to Lorenzo from SCGT) some footage of the E Scooter in the wild.

Review – The 2010 Ultra Motor A2B Metro

Steve Guzman — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 22:06:25 +0000

Hey! Look at that! Another review for Motorcycle.com. I actually convinced them to let me review a BICYCLE! HAHA! Well, an electric bicycle… they actually created a new category for me. ;)

Anyway, I posted the video above and you can read the write up on their site HERE>.

STUPID CRAZY shout-outs go to my co-conspirators contributors:
Greg Griffin – Test Rider
Wiretree - Music 0:00 – 1:12 “Back In Town (instrumental)”
GeekBeats – Music 1:15 – 1:55 “The Stride”
General Fuzz – Music 3:25 – 5:31 “Summer”

ENJOY!

Piaggio takes some plays from the Japanese design book?

Steve Guzman — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:48:00 +0000

First we had the Piaggio MP3, now they introduce the USB? I don’t know if this is just coincidence, but if Piaggio introduces the Piaggio Tweet next year then I’ll be highly suspicious that there’s a computer geek heading up the new product naming department over there.

I’ve got a headache right now, so I’m having trouble constructing my own deep and thoughtful analysis of this new concept. I suggest that you visit Hell For Leather to read their post from yesterday. While you’re there check out the jaw-dropping new designs from Moto Guzzi! The V7 Clubman Racer is the hotness, though I would have been happy with half the displacement.

Thanks to Orin O’Neill from Scootin’ Old Skool for the scoop.

PS> You can see what the Italians think about the USB here.

DIY of the day – the eSnake electirc 3-wheeler

Steve Guzman — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:47:00 +0000

(Watch the e-Snake, e-Slither around the e… *sign*, “e-” is dead… but the scooter is cool!)

Hats off to Prof. Vittore Cossalter & Prof. Giuseppe Buja’s fine team of students who knocked out this prototype for a three-wheeled, tilting, electric.

The goal was short distance, low consumption, low emission, in a small package that could be used to travel the inner cities.

The e-Snake is powered by dual electric motors mounted in the hubs of the rear wheels. Looks like it was a success because, from what I can read, they took home the award for acceleration and speed at the Formula Electric and Hybird Italy 2007 student competition.

Though the thing appears to be made of bent aluminum pipe it still weighs in at 357 lbs. With that heft, this electric scoot is capable of reaching 31 mph and covering a distance of 62 miles on a charge (from what I can understand).

For more info you can click on the title link which will take you to the CyberScooter post where I found this OR you can just zip directly to the University of Padova’s student website HERE.

(Here’s a video presentation in English)