Vespa Finally Working On Electric Scooter

Electric scooters have become relatively common in many parts of the world in recent years, but most of the best established brands in the scooter market have seemingly been slow to transition to electrics. The much loved Italian brand Vespa is perhaps the most notable example.

It looks as though that’s set to change relatively soon, as Vespa is now reportedly working on an electric scooter. To date, though, details are sparse, so who knows how far along the company is with development?

What we do know is that the Elettrica Electric Scooter concept (as it’s apparently known) is going to hit the market in late 2017, and that the model will have all of the style and maneuverability of a classic Vespa. Also, there will reportedly be “innovative connectivity solutions.”

Pricing, though, remains an unknown for now. The company seems likely to jack it up quite a bit compared to a conventional Vespa, as that seems to be common in the industry owing to battery pack costs, but we’ll have to wait to see.

I’m guessing that the “innovative connectivity solutions” will include an easy, built-in means of keeping track of your Vespa from a smartphone — a nice feature, if it ends up being included, especially since Vespas make an attractive target for thieves and are stolen at a rather high rate as compared to cars.

While estimates are simply estimates, a price tag of around $10,000 seems to be the consensus guess that I’ve seen while looking around the internet. That would certainly be a premium over many of the electric scooters out there, but they don’t have the Vespa brand and good public image to rely upon.