Modern Vespa

I know that I saw this subject mentioned here on the forum in the last month or two. Today's Wall Street Journal in the Corporate News section.

Italy's Piaggio SpA launched a hybrid electric-and-gasoline scooter Tuesday in Rome, entering the wider race among vehicle makers for greater fuel efficiency.

Europe's largest scooter maker by sales, which makes the Vespa, will roll out the three-wheeler across Europe by August and plans to sell the vehicle in the U.S. next year.

maybe we'll luck out and they won't send the damn thing over here. Hybrid scooters, what crap!

This will give the author of "Stuff White People Like" a new subject, or at least a chance to revisit the topic of one of his most recent posts.

Obviously an MP3

http://www.piaggiomp3.com/new/main.html

Snazzy if that floats your boat.

hmmm maybe it actually does float

Let it be gas or let it be electric. "Hybrid" is a euphemism for "kludge."

It only goes 20 kilometers (12 miles) in full electric mode. Why bother?

It gets up to 175 mpg!!! Why not bother?

Why would they call it a "scooter" if it has 3 wheels? Sounds like an mp3. It could be promising if they can get the price down. Sure it will have limits but version 1.0 of anything has room to improve.

Anyone have pix?

I like it, just not the loss of under seat storage.

I haven't been to impressed with current hybrids in cars let alone scooters. Maybe some day but not in the foreseeable future. In my mainland travels i saw 4 MP3'S in 2 days and nary another scooter in sight Weird but cool.

+1...if you check our Review for specific hybrids (i.e. Toyota Prius, etc.) you'll find down side...batteries do wear out...batteries need to be disposed of...batteries need to be replace. There was one owner that had their Prius power down while on freeway and had to creep along and exit (luckily did not stop)...another owner indicated you had to make sure you don't leave your Prius idle for more than two weeks.

Note: I believe Toyota was going to release a plug in Prius in their 2010 model...but not so.

Personally I need to do more research and confirmation that I would consider picking up any hybrid...in my opinion too soon to tell.

Hence with a hybrid scoot...got to prove to me it's viable and not just hype/fluff.

Yep, basically, all hybrids and all attempts to do anything other than live on intravenous fossil fuel are crap. Oh, and automatics are crap, and 3 wheelers aren't scooters.

I LIKED THE SQUARE WHEEL. BRING BACK THE SQUARE WHEEL!!!

+1000

Then there was this flight accident a few weeks ago. So you really shouldn't fly either. Oh, and a friends friend has a Ford which powered down on the highway. Had to be towed away.

And another friends friends friend had a volvo, and the transmission wore out. Had to be changed.

I think Toyota has some 6 years warrenty on the batteries, and considering how many of them you see around (in Europe), especially among Taxi-drivers, I really don't think they should be counted out.

I'm sure that as far as technology and quality is concerned, they are in the absolute frontline.

The design however is another question, but can be discussed in infinitum.

Yep, me no likey my Prius!

It's the last hybrid I will buy for a loooonnnnggg time!

Well, the Prius has a very high resale value and the price of gas has been rising quickly the past couple months. If you no likey, why don't you selly.

Love this post... as if a gas driven cars have never died on the freeway.

Hybrids have been around for like 15 years. It works. Alot of people love their hybrids. I'm not saying its the most perfect car to ever exist, but the tech will get better, and then lead into full electric, or the gas driven cars to become more fuel efficient to compete. Sure you can't go 90 in an electric now, but that doesn't mean you never will.

My wife has driven a Prius for a few years now. The only battery that's died thus far is the one in the key fob. One owner who's had their Prius stall on the freeway is as significant an event as a random LX150 with starting problems. I have NEVER heard of anyone needing to replace all the batteries in their 1st gen Prius (which I think, was on the market in the early 2000s). As for the Prius sitting idle for 2 weeks being problematic, I say talk to some Vespa owners and you'll get the same story.

First of all I am a loyal Toyota customer...Tacoma Prerunner 2002 and Lexus RX300 2001...both are fine vehicles and in excelletn condition...no major problems.

The esence of my message is there is still a lot to be done before I will personally pick up any hybrid. Please keep in mind that although I am questioning the reliability of the battery cells...I hope we all understand the real issue is the back end (life end) how do we dispose (I presume owner is reponsible; disposal fee), cost of replacment (net cost; not just the battery). I've gone down and spoke to folks at our local Toyota Dealver ship and when asked about the above: Answers were not concise..they did not have the cost of disposal and used the deflected response of "being covered by warranty"...

We'll do more research before we decide...

People can ride/drive what they want. For me i get 35mpg in my sentra. Don't get that much more in a hybrid. I have a friend who has a new prius as a loaner car and it gets better mileage in town so if you do long distance driving your right about the same as a lot of normal cars. If you like them buy one but for me i'll wait a while. I don't commute to work everyday so i really only use my car to go into honolulu. I use about a tank a month so i'm good to go. Use the scooters everyday.[/url]

I'm sure it's an MP3. I seen it at the Vespa museum last month in Italy. I didn't take any pictures cause it looked like any other MP3. There was a small room near the back for prototypes and it was there along with a naked regular MP3 with it's front wheels on uneven elevations.

I think it's interesting they are going into production soon. Good for them.

Oh, and MP3s are scooters in my book.

http://www.piaggiomp3.com/new/main.html

Bobo & Zagato - check the link - yes it's an MP3 Scooter and looks about the same as others - though the white paint job looks kind of snazzy.

Anyone who thinks a hybrid is a viable alternative to a 100% combustion engine car is dreaming.

1. Just wait until batteries go on the first generation. It will cost more to fix the batteries then just sending it to the scrap yard. That's when ppl will instantly realize that the depreciation was greater then KBB.com assumed

2. The initial cost far out ways any benefit. The average cost for a hybrid is something like $4k on top of a comparable regular model.
Even if you manage to squeeze that out in gas savings there is something called Time Value of Money. I'd rather have $4000 today then $4000 over the next 10 years. (Prius Car = Reg. Car + Scooter )

3. Don't even use the government subsidizing argument. we all know where the government get's it money. Same pocket as you do!

4. MP3's are not really scooters (that doesn't mean I don't like them), they are trikes. (weird trikes, but trikes)

Keep in mind that for most people in Europe that's plenty of distance!

Hence the reason we a sticking with out ICB autos for as long as we can...fyi previously owned a diesel sedan that lasted me over 13 years @ 100K miles...kept in in good shape and got a fine return on investment. Ater it's economic life of 5 years the remaining years were just spent on maintaining and investing the monthly payments into a stock fund and our 401K.

This may allow you to purchase an auto with cash vs. a loan.

My recommendation to those who have both autos and scoots...if there is no compelling reason to buy a new car...don't...leverage what you have and save towards a time if and when you need to make the cash outlay.

The first mp3s where trikes then they narrowed the front and now they are scoots. Well thats in the uk anyhoo.
Think they look like they should be ridden by a power ranger

I've tried...they are not as desirable as I thought it would be.

BADP do you have the new one? My friends loaner had this weird center console screen that only had a diagram of the energy you were saving or something like that I'm guessing when the diagrams were green that was good and red it wasn't. Fugly little thing but beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say. I'll pass.

Weird, isn't it. Plus, like, I heard that driving one turns you into a Commie.

I think mine is considered 2nd gen...not the new one. The little center console screen is pretty distracting. I saw a hack where you can hook up an external video out to it, so you can watch videos. If I get bored I may try it.

I've had to replace the "standard" 12 V battery on it twice...they are about $180 a piece, it sucks!!!!

What is silly, is getting waves in it like when driving a scooter. I don't get that nearly as much as I did when we first bought it.

We mainly bought it because it has the HOV stickers on it, so we can drive in the carpool lane.

After driving the Prius for a day, it really makes me appreciate the safety, power, and joy of driving my truck!

The mp3 is definitely a scooter. Just because it has three wheels, thus fitting the loose definition of a "trike" doesn't make it lose its identity as a scoot. I think they are more scoot-like than x9's, burgmans, and other maxi scoots.

we all know hybrids are stepping stones to something better, but until the performance of pure electric drive vehicles catches up, hybrids are not a bad choice.

Honestly, I'd like to see a diesel scoot with urea injection and a particulate filter.

Really? To me they look like X8s from the back, and to a certain extent from the sides.

And X9's (I would say this, because I've got one), and other maxi's definitely look like scoots. I accept they may not look like a lot of the scoots that are ridden in Nth America, but they're a completely unremarkable part of the mixture of scoot-types that we get in Europe.

And in Japan, say, it's VERY rare to see a Vespa-shaped scoot, but Burgman-styled scoots are commonplace.