Vespa’s First Electric Scooter is Coming to America

Totally silent, with style to burn.

The iconic Vespa scooter is getting an eco-friendly makeover in the form of its first electric vehicle ever.

Vespa will offer the smooth, quiet, smoke-free power of a battery electric drivetrain in the Vespa Elettrica, which arrives in the U.S. early next year, to let you hum into the timelessly trendy Mod lifestyle in fashion-forward silence.

Vespa is promising a riding range of about 62 miles per charge. It will take about four hours to top off the depleted battery after a ride. The company says that the electric model outperforms the 50cc gas version. We don’t know the actual top speed, but Vespa says the available Eco mode limits speed to 19 mph.

They also promise an Elettrica X version that will use a gas-electric hybrid drivetrain to extend riding range to 124 miles. Modern electronic gadgetry will include vehicle and pedestrian sensing as well as a navigation system with dynamic routing to help avoid traffic.

Vespa will preserve a connection to the brand’s longstanding heritage by building the Elettrica in the Pontedera plant near Pisa, where Vespa first rolled off the line in 1946.

The price hasn’t been announced, but Vespa warns that it will be “in line with the high-end bracket of the Vespa range presently being marketed,” which currently tops out around $7,000.