Italian scooter manufacturer Piaggio SpA has announced that it will roll out a 140-mile-per-gallon hybrid scooter in August. The Wall Street Journal reports that the new three-wheel scooter will be the first ever to use a hybrid electric-gasoline powertrain and will cost $12,581.
Unlike the first generation of hybrid cars, Piaggio’s new scooter will employ a lithium-based battery and a parallel, rather than series, hybrid powertrain. The hybrid product, which is based on the company’s earlier MP3 design, is expected to cost more than its predecessors. Gasoline-based MP3s range from the MP3 250, which costs $7,199, to the MP3 500, which runs $8,899, according to Piaggio’s web site.
Scooters, of course, are popular on crowded European streets, where Piaggio is said to control 25% of the scooter market. Honda and Yamaha are reportedly on the verge of releasing their own hybrid and electric scoters, however. Both have unveiled hybrid and electric prototypes.
Tesla Motors plans to roll out a “compelling, affordable electric car” that will sell for about half the price of its high-profile Model S by the end of 2016, company chairman Elon Musk said last week.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
40 
