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Back at the 2007 EICMA show in Milan, Taiwanese scooter company Motive Power Industry Co. Ltd. (PGO) was showing off a new electric scooter. The design of the machine apes a model that they already sell, but the innards are actually pretty intriguing. The scooter uses both lithium ion and lead acid batteries. The lead acids provide the necessary power to move the machine while the lithium ions act as additional storage. When a large lithium ion battery pack is assembled, small cells are placed in both parallel and serial configurations in order to hold enough juice for extended running while also being powerful enough to provide quick bursts of acceleration. In this case, the lead acids could provide the necessary output while the lithium ions could just keep the system "topped-off."

Take a close look at the picture above. Note that the front wheel is powered by an electric motor. We can't confirm this for sure, but this appears to be a two-wheel drive electric scooter, which would be really awesome! There is a small chance that a version of this scooter could make it to U.S. shores, as Genuine Scooters in Chicago currently imports certain models from PGO, including the one that this scooter is based on. In the states, it's called the Buddy.

[Source: Taiwan Economic News via 2 Stroke Buzz]

Our good friend Steve from The Scooter Scoop has found himself swamped with news of electric scooters over the past few weeks, so his last few posts have all been on that subject. Of course, scooters already are savers of gas, but as many of you probably already know, they often pollute more than cars. The good news is that for the same reason that scooters save on gas (light weight, smaller engines) they also save on electricity when using electron power instead of dead dinos. So, take a look here at (*deep breath*) a possible all electric Genuine Buddy, the iMobility electric LEV, the MIT/SYM electric scooter concept, Germany's Emax electric scooter, the Axle Group's EV-X7 and the Mitka from Vendenbrink.

Whew... that's a lot of electrons there. Which is a good thing. Stay tuned for an exclusive first ride of the Quantya electric dirtbike, which we were able to hitch a ride on last week.

[Source: The Scooter Scoop]