Modern Vespa

I have a three year old Elettrica and It will not charge over 56%. I keep the house battery on a tender as I have run into the issue of that battery going dead in the past.

The scooter runs great and shows that the range is 40 km at 56%.

Has any one run into this issue?

Hi Stephen , I am experiencing the same issue where I am unable to charge past 61% When I reconnect the charger it charges for less than 5 mins and then shuts off .

I am now unable to use the bike due to a service light warning and the bike immobiilzed

How did you get on ?

Pete,

I have not been able to get any information on how to get it to charge.

I am planning on taking it to the selling dealer later this month. I will let you know what they say.
Regards,
Stephen

Hi Stephen , I will send an update too once I have organised recovery to a dealership.
My bike is 5 years old with 8500 miles, never had any issues until last November when the battery would only take 80% charge and then lost approx 10% each week until finallly displaying the red service light warning and unable to ride any further !
I am aware there is a firmware update for the battery management system and hoping the updates may fix the issue .

Good luck, catch up soon ! Regards Peter

Hello! Also having a similar problem. 2020 model, have been riding for 3 years, and stops charging at about 38%.
I replaced the auxiliary battery, but still no change in traction battery charging to 38%. My closest dealer is 2 hours away, so have a trip planned and will rent a U-Haul to take it in next month, unfortunately.

It sounds like some of you are continuing to ride with the limited battery charge and recharging with no issues? I was worried to do this to cause further damage, but need to use it to get around, can't keep taking the family car.
I have read about balancing e-bike batteries with several rounds of riding and charging, but doesn't sound like this has made an improvement for those continuing to ride.
I'll keep an eye on this thread if someone hopefully learns more, otherwise I will report back if I have any progress myself!

Update on my 5yr old battery from the shop: a few cells are dead and the only solution is a new one, at over $2,000.
According to communication with the technical team of Vespa, they are just learning that this type of battery "just doesn't have a long life."
Although they did update the software and it is now able to charge closer to 50%, so I guess that's better than nothing...

Your dealer may have rounded that number down a lot. The part number I found is 1A010077, and they seem to sell for 3K or more.
Take some photos of the battery pack and post them. Tesla charges more than 20K for replacement batteries, and there are aftermarket companies that sell a replacement battery pack for about 1/4 of that price. The same may hold true with your situation. Piaggio didn't make the batteries, so perhaps there's a cheaper workaround.
Battery dimensions would also be helpful in tracking down a replacement, particularly in mm or cm. And any writing on the battery pack too.

Good afternoon Stephen ,RodeoSmash,Motovista , I have been informed by our Vespa service centre my bike requires a new Inverter at a cost of £1680 !!

This effectively renders the bike an uneconomical repair. In the UK we can pick up a new electricca for around £3400 at this time due to the release of a new model and poor sales of electric vehicles.

Good luck with yours !

I am going to buy a new Honda GB350S and keep watch for a salvaged electricca for spares .

Take care wishing you all the best

Kind regards Peter

Anyone found a battery repair center ? Changing out the bad cell is a process for EV's already. Lithium does not 100% fail. Just get out of balance.

There are companies out there that refurbish EV batteries. One went out on my daughters 2007 Prius and the replacement ran around $900 at the time. Now this was 7 years ago, but the price also included the removal and replacement and a thorough check of the charging system. It was still working great when she sold the car a month ago with 230K miles on it.
As I already mentioned, there are several companies that do this kind of work, even with a smaller PTW like Vespa. Unfortunately, right now, when the battery goes out, the scoots become almost worthless, even for a brand like Zero Motorcycles.

Hate to say it but the "Elettrica" is a niche, shit product. It's not the first time they fail on experimental models (e.g., MP3 Hybrid)...

yup its a experiment on customers they don't have to pay for but actually GET paid for.

Not a fan of EV vehicles for normal transportation reliability.
Now a EV bicycle , sure why not.

Sorry I forgot to update once I picked my vespa up from the dealer at the beginning of the year!

Although they said they were unable to get it to charge 100%, once I brought it home it was charging and running as usual after they updated software and tinkered around with it.
One thing to note- I didn't think to recharge it before riding after picking up from the mechanic. It was mostly charged, but hadn't been ridden for a little over 2 weeks while there. Once it got down around 10% it dropped very quickly and battery died less than a mile after hitting 10%. Charged it back to full overnight and it went back up to 100%!!
It has been working great ever since. Not sure if completely draining it helped "reset" somehow, but it's been running on it's normal close to 50mi (3km) range just fine all year. 🤷‍♀️