3 ms·
About 50 HP. That's pretty OK for a small city car like that, especially with electric engine which has nice torque from the start. Boxyness doesn't matter much
by ajuc 8y ago
About 50 HP. That's pretty OK for a small city car like that, especially with electric engine which has nice torque from the start. Boxyness doesn't matter much at 30-50 km/h.
It has similar shape and size to Fiat 126p - the car that motorized several communist countries in 70s-80s (and is still used in Cuba). They made millions of them. It had about 600 kg empty mass, and 24 HP. I assume this weighs more because of batteries, but surely not twice as much?
It wasn't comfortable (back seats were designed for people about 160 cm tall :) ), and certainly wasn't safe (famously - the structural integrity during a crash depended on a spare tire being in it's intended place in the front trunk, and even then any serious crash was deadly).
But there were almost no heavy cars on the roads then, and you weren't supposed to drive it over 80km/h anyway - it felt like you're in a formula one when you exceeded 90 km/h, and it took over 40 seconds to achieve 100km/h speed :)
I would be OK with driving this in city traffic, especially if it was allowed on bus lanes and if access to the city center was paid for ICE cars.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago50Hp is a bit low for a car - a Vespa Scooter has 22Hp Btw
- ajuc 8y agoMy Fiat Punto has 54 HP at 860 kg and it's perfectly fine for urban driving.
- et2o 8y agoThat's the biggest engine ever put in a Vespa. For a long time (until the 1990s) they were legally limited to 1.5 Hp in Italy. That Vespa also costs nearly as much as this car.
- C1sc0cat 8y agothis is the 300 they have done 500cc
- llampx 8y agoWhich Vespa scooter? A 150cc scooter is pretty big and you need a proper motorcycle license for it, and that has 12-13 bhp. Smaller scooters have even less.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago300 GTS ie the one you need a full licence for
- jtuente 8y agoGTS 300, and probably the GTS Super https://www.vespa.com/us_EN/news-promo/vespa-GTS-300-new-HPE-engine.html https://www.vespa.com/us_EN/news-promo/vespa-GTS-300-new-HPE...
- vram22 8y agoVespa 150cc scooters were commonly sold in India and were a very popular commuter vehicle for many years, earlier. Later Bajaj Auto manufactured the Chetak model which was similar, probably under license or know-how transfer. I rode a Vespa for some time. Never thought of it as big. But you could be right. Depends what you compare it with, I guess. You did need a license for it. IIRC, only mopeds like 50cc or below did not need a license.