Lately not one day passes without an electric scooter being announced or released. It seems to be the new trend, the new direction to go for transportation innovators.

How about Vectrix, the company that announced its newest electric vehicle VX-2 back in January? Is it another company influenced by the boom into electric? Not really. In fact, the company was founded more than 15 years ago, in 1996, before it all started. The company is one of the pioneers in the commercialized electric vehicle industry.

Vectrix, originally located in Rhode Island, with development and research facilities in New Bedford, MA, got hit by the global economic crisis and filed for bankruptcy in 2009. At that time, Gold Peak Industries,  a public company based out of Hong Kong, which was also Vetrix’s original battery manufacturer purchased the company. Vetrix now operates out of separate European and North American facilities.

With its new parent company, the company launched its VX-2 in January 2011. A slimmer and smaller version than the brand’s initial product, the VX-1. The VX-2 scooter has a 40-55 mile range, with its cruising speed of 30 mph, it is intended more towards lower-speed urban neighborhood and small-town trips. On the other hand, the VX-1 Li+ is a powerful, all-electric, all-highway-capable electric vehicle that can go up to 68 mph and has a range up to 55-85 miles.

VX-2

VX-1

According to Vectrix, it only costs about a penny per mile to operate anyone of these scooters and recharging the battery is as easy as plugging it into a standard 110/220V outlet. Their website offers an online calculator that helps to compare economic and environmental costs of a Vectrix to other vehicles.

Besides their technical capabilities, both the VX-1 and VX-2 come with great designs.

For more information visit the company website http://www.vectrix.com/.

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Last week, one popular topic in the news was, how increasing gas prices helped boost up scooter sales.

Finally, consumers started thinking about how they could cut down their transportation costs in terms of gas consumption.

OK, let’s think about that… If we don’t consider public transportation, shared commute or bicycling, one option would be to buy a hybrid car, and  another one  would be to get a motorcycle or a scooter. A hybrid car is not something everyone can afford, for example, a Prius starts at 23K.However, a second hand scooter or motorcycle can easily be purchased for under $2000.

But then again, not anyone can ride a motorcycle, you need to get a special license first, unless it is a 50cc scooter; many US states allow you to operate a 50cc scooter with a regular driver’s license.

Given all these facts, a 50cc scooter looks like a good choice. And then, it is not only that you save costs, but you also help the environment by reducing your carbon footprint. Plus, riding a scooter is more fun then driving a car, but that is outside the scope of this article.

Well said, let’s see  these savings in numbers… Vespa seems to have invested into this kind of research with Vespanomics.

If you haven’t heard the term Vespanomics before, here is the definition from the Vespa website: “Vespanomics promotes embracing motor scooters as an alternative form of transportation to reduce oil consumption, pollution and traffic congestion”.

Here are some very interesting facts from Vespanomics (and no Vespanomics is not a new concept).

Average fuel consumption:

• Scooter: 70MPG
• Prius: 47MPG
• Average car:  30MPG

Scooters:

• save you 57% gas over a regular car
• produce 72% less CO2 then the average car

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