I have to say I was pretty impressed by it. I’m not used to twist and go scooters, but I found it easy to ride an amazingly quick. It’s a bit weird sitting at the lights with a stalled engine, and then when you pull away it makes no noise. But it costs 20p a day to go 110 km, has a top speed of 100 km/h and really feels like a bike to ride. And almost maintenance free they reckon. If I didn’t have so much motorway in my commute I’d be very tempted to get one. Even at the £7k price tag, I reckon if you allow for 100% depreciation over 4 years it would have been cheaper than owning a petrol bike. But then I do cover some distance, so the sums might not add up for a shorter commute.
Saw these at Canary Wharf all this week although didn’t get a chance to speak to any of the sales staff or get a test ride.
Look good, only thing i’d be concerned about is the actual life of the battery. ie. Does the battery lose power over time similar to electronic devices like phones etc and how much does this affect the range, charging time etc.At least with an engine or a hybrid the battery is always getting recharged so is never fully discharged.
The other question would have to be, if the performance degrades over time, how much do these batteries cost to replace, pretty frightening cost i’d imagine consodering their size and power, especially if it was every couple of years in order to maintain peak performance!
Ive known about this scooter for a few years now, i think its great to riding around town or if you have a short commute to work but not for the open road.
I think they would be quite popular if they existed in commuter/second bike market. For 30 miles of london daily i wouldn’t mind using the vectrix (i think it has a rather nice design - for a scooter:))
They don’t have the range to reliably do a 25 mile round trip commute and the headlights drain the battery like any bike so they have shorter range in winter and you can’t ride with lights on in the day unless you only want to go to the end of the road!
I am all for cheap environmental transport (that is why I ride a 74mpg (based on the last tank) 250 for my commute) and I am impressed by the electric scooters I have seen on the road, but I think we are still at the same stage mobile phones were when I first saw them. I remember back in 1987 when I sat down in a restaurant in Kingston, and a bloke arrived at the next table with this huge briefcase, he lifted a phone reciever off the top of it, and started talking into it. The briefcase was the battery.
Electric vehicles will have a significant role for commuting, but not yet.
I had a limited demo and was told not to ride with the lights on. Why? 'Cos they would have to charge it up if I did (for a 40 minute loan) so that it was ready for the next guy.
Good, but not quite there yet, but will be fairly soon. A bit like Chinese motorcycles.
Oh, and the whole life running costs don’t stack up unless you are giving up your car to use one in the London extra road tax area.
