Another Electric Vespa Rip-off, But This Time It Isn’t The Chinese

The electric two-wheeler boom in China aside, Europe is a pretty ideal deployment ground for EVs. Most European countries have a far cleaner energy grid than places like China and India, and the continent is predominantly part of the “developed world” so the charging infrastructure is pretty developed too. Throw in a strong sense of environmental awareness and you have all the right ingredients for a strong EV market.

Adding to the population of this market is the recently introduced Wayel W3 electric scooter. The name sounds pretty Chinese and it looks like another Vespa rip-off, but Wayel is based in Bologna, Italy. It’s part of the Termal Group -- the exclusive distributor of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries products in Italy, so there is a Far East connection there somewhere.

As for the e-scooter itself, it’s powered by a 4kW motor from Bosch which gives it a top speed of 75kph. Suspiciously similar specs to the Bajaj Chetak, but in this case it’s a rear hub mounted motor. The lithium-ion battery system uses cells from LG, and Wayel says its 3.78kWh capacity is good for 100km.

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It might look quite alike and perform pretty similarly, but one area where the W3 is hugely dissimilar to the Chetak is price. Compared to Hamara Bajaj’s Rs 1 lakh starting price, the Wayel sits at a monstrous 4,750 Euros (Rs 4.25 lakh.) That being said, there is a scrapping incentive if you trade in your old petrol-powered two-wheeler for one of these, bringing the cost down to a slightly more reasonable 3,193 Euros (Rs 2.86 lakh.) For the moment, the W3 is on sale only in its home nation of Italy.