Is This Little Scooter the Start of Something Big?
Yamaha has revealed the e-Vino scooter for Japan. Yamaha has been making Vino scooters for a while, but a couple of years ago, the rumors swirled about an electric Vino. Well, now it’s here but currently only for Japan.
This little EV weighs just 150 pounds without its battery and about 163 pounds with the battery installed. It’s a perfect and unintimidating little scooter for folks who want to get around but maybe haven’t ridden a scooter or motorcycle before.
This bike is meant for urban environments it has a range of just 18 miles. You can increase that to 36 miles if you add an additional battery, which you can do. Still, that’s not much. It will only work for those in dense cities with small commutes. However, for those folks, I can see this being a good option. Charging takes about three hours on a standard wall outlet.
The power will be roughly 50cc scooter equivalent, and there are two power modes, Standard and Power. There’s also a little boost function that gives you some extra juice for 30 seconds. This is supposed to be good for hills. I’m not seeing top-speed specs or acceleration numbers at this time, but you can expect them to be low and slow.
The price tag on this bike sits at the equivalent of $2,505, so not too bad for something that will be a super low maintenance commuting machine. Other than a bicycle, you’ll probably have a hard time finding something cheaper to ride every day.
The interesting thing about this little electric is that it could fit into Yamaha’s swappable battery technology push it’s doing with other bike manufacturers. Also, RideApart notes that Yamaha has filed a patent application with European authorities, so there’s a chance it could make its way to Europe. Who knows where it will go from there. It’s cool to see Yamaha working on this bike, and I think it bodes well for the future even if this particular machine isn’t too impressive.
