Autoesque

Both Smart and Mini will have electric scooter concepts at the Paris Motor Show. That’s either a huge coincidence, or they’ve been keeping a very close eye on each other’s activities. Of course it must be the former, for the benefit of the lawyers. Smart Smart’s offering is called the escooter which, like the Smart fortwo car, features a metal frame with interchangeable plastic body panels. Power comes from a 5 bhp (4 kW / 5 PS) rear hub-mounted motor, driven by a 48-volt lithium-ion battery pack. That’s enough to propel the escooter up to 28 mph (45 km/h), which is on a par with 50 cc petrol scooters and should be fine for most city centre trips. Tackling anything further afield might be a bit ambitious, although Smart reckons it’ll have a range of around 60 miles (100 km). Charging takes ‘within three to five hours’, which just sounds rather vague. Unlike the Econogo Yogo electric scooter , the escooter doesn’t have a removable battery, which makes recharging awkward unles...

When the UK government announced earlier this week it was ring-fencing £43 million for Plug-in Car Grants , there was a mostly positive response from the motor industry. However, the exclusion of electric motorcycles from the scheme has been met with criticism. The Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCI) is not too happy, and it has already contacted the Department for Transport demanding an explanation for the omission. Quite rightly, the MCI points out that electric bikes beat congestion better than any car and so reduce journey times. Its stance is that the government should therefore be encouraging them, not ignoring them. There is already a selection of electric motorcycles and scooters available on the market. These include the Econogo Yogo and the Zero range, with more - such as the KTM Freeride - coming soon. In general, these bikes are more expensive than their petrol-powered counterparts, due mainly to the cost of the batteries. Therefore, some cash from the governmen...

Electric scooters are nothing new, and on the face of it they’re an environmentally friendly way of getting around. But they’re not much use if you live in an upper storey apartment and don’t fancy dangling extension cables out of the window to recharge it, or the commute to and from work is just that bit further than the battery’s range. There’s now a solution for UK buyers: The Econogo Yogo . Its makers claim it’s the first production scooter to feature a removable lithium battery, which means users can simply lift it out and take it indoors to recharge. In standard specification, the Yogo manages 30 mph, although the slightly more powerful ‘S’ version will reach 40 mph. Both have a range of 22 miles, with recharging taking just one hour. That range can easily be doubled, because the Yogo has space on board for a second battery - the rider just needs to remember to flick a switch to transfer between batteries when one is getting low on charge. Arguably, the environmental benef...