Piaggio is evaluating an electric vehicle for our market. The EV will most certainly be a scooter, but whether this will be a Vespa or Aprilia is not confirmed; we suspect it will be the former, to begin with.
What we do know is that the EV will use a powertrain that’s similar to one on the Vespa Elettrica, but tuned for our market. Piaggio is currently in the process of evaluating the performance and range requirements that suit our market. The international-spec Elettrica uses a 4kW motor, and has a battery with a claimed range of 100km and a full-charge time of 4 hours. These figures are right in the ballpark of the current crop of electric scooters in India like the Ather 450X and Bajaj Chetak.
Piaggio is also figuring out the level of localised content on the electric vehicle, which is something that will play a key role when it comes to pricing the scooter. While the international-spec Elettrica features components that are unique to it, that might not be the case in India. We might see it share many components with one of the company’s existing models, to help price it competitively.
However, Piaggio’s first electric two-wheeler is quite some time away from a debut, which could happen next year.
Vishal Venugopal
Ved Janve
Azaman Chothia
