Modern Vespa

G'day,

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130714-hole-new-design-for-scooters

These folks have a $5,000 design where an electric scooter has the engine in the wheel. Many cars are moving to this design already and are banned from formula 1 because they quietly trounce any ICEs.

The front area is free to carry a fairly large box, perhaps a fixed metal one where loose items could be stored or an actual plastic or cardboard box. I could see a few of couriers making this switch if they have battery swap stations or longer charge distances.

I do object to the idea that scooter are polluting, loud, inefficient machines all burning a mixture of petrol/oil. There may be a lot of 2T engines out there, but the 4 stroke is damn near universal on new models because of the reduced pollution and increases in efficiency. I thought it a bit heavy handed to phrase it that way, but I haven't seen what type of scooters populate the busy streets of Mumbai or Shanghai.

Interesting design concept though.

I saw a lot of scooters in Shenzhen China, when I was there a few months ago. They were mostly delivery vehicles for pizza, etc. And they were ALL electric! And when I was in Shanghai China a few years ago, most of the two-wheeled vehicles there were pedal bicycles -- pretty much zero polluting!

-Dan

That box thing holds the batteries?