Lambretta’s sleek new electric scooter is sexy, but repeats Vespa’s big mistake
Lambretta, an icon of retro-inspired scooter design, showed off a stylish electric model at the EICMA 2023 Milan Motorcycle Show. The new model, known as the Lambretta Elettra, mixes vintage vibes with the latest electric vehicle technology.
Lambretta’s name has long invoked a certain style and nostalgia in the scooter world. Originating in Italy in the late 1940s, Lambretta became synonymous with European chic and post-war mobility.
Lambretta scooters were not just a means of transportation but often times a fashion statement among the youth of that era. Over the decades that Lambretta has evolved, the brand has maintained its classic aesthetics. Now, that same design ethos is on full display with the newly unveiled Lambretta Elettra.
I had the chance to see the new model up close at the show, and it’s quite impressive how the company managed to channel its legacy designs into a futuristic offering. The entire rear bodywork even tilts up to allow access to the mechanicals underneath.
Lambretta also did a great job with the specs, eschewing the trend for slower urban scooters by offering a top speed of up to 110 km/h (68 mph), meaning this would be a highway-capable scooter – even if it spends most of its time in the city.
To achieve that speed, the Lambretta Elettra uses a fairly powerful 11 kW (15 hp) electric motor, giving it powerful acceleration and a higher top speed than many other models on the market.
To supply that power, the scooter uses a fairly large 4.6 kWh lithium battery, though it appears the company has made a similar design move as its rival Vespa in opting for a single non-removable battery.
Most electric scooters have multiple smaller removable batteries that allow riders to charge the batteries remotely from the scooter. But when Vespa first launched its Vespa Elettrica scooter, it used a single non-removable battery. A built-in coiled charging cord allowed owners to charge the scooter as long as they were within reach of an outlet. That works fine in a garage or with street-level charging stations, but not for apartment dwellers who lack a place to charge. As it so happens, those are the majority of urban residents in many European cities.
Lambretta has now followed a similar move to Vespa, outfitting the Lambretta Elettra with a single fixed battery.
Piaggio, the parent company of Vespa, eventually followed normal conventions by releasing the Piaggio ONE electric scooter and its removable batteries several years after the release of the original Vespa Elettrica.
In this case, the 4.6 kWh battery in the Lambretta Elettra is somewhat larger than most removable battery electric scooters, but not by much. My first NIU electric scooter had a 4.2 kWh battery divided into two removable units, allowing me to charge the batteries up in my apartment while the scooter stayed on street level.
Lambretta says it plans to bring its new electric scooter to production, so it looks like the brand’s first model will stick with fixed batteries – at least for now. But it wouldn’t be surprising to see subsequent models follow in Piaggio’s footsteps by eventually incorporating removable batteries.
As for when exactly we’ll be able to ride around on an electric Lambretta or how much the experience will cost us, those details still remains a mystery.
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GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.
GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.
As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:
- seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
- two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
- two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona
Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.
“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”
GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.
Electrek’s Take
Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”
All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.
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While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.
Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.
As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”
The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.
“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”
The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.
The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”
The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”
In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”
Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.
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