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.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike