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Environmental issues and the need for
environment-friendly transport have always been a priority for Piaggio.
The company has launch today an hybrid engine that will undoubtedly
revolutionise urban transport.
Scooters has come to symbolise urban
mobility: they’re the ideal way to zip through congested town traffic
and fun to use on weekend trips.
In recent years, however, many towns have tackled the need to
reduce pollution by creating
an increasing number of restricted traffic zones, where even scooters
are banned entry. Manufacturers have responded with zero-emissions
electric vehicles for unrestricted travel.
Thermal and electric engines both have
advantages and disadvantages
that are often complementary. Combustion engines offer better range,
power and ‘lunge’, but give out exhaust
gas, although the current Euro 3 norm place strict limits on
these. Electric engines are zero-emission and offer very quick pick-up
from a stopped position, but the
batteries have low range
and limited speed.
With the
Piaggio HyS, riders no longer
have to choose between performance and environment friendliness or
between a vehicle to commute in town and one for longer trips.
HyS
is a revolutionary hybrid scooter
prototype, a marked evolution
as regards urban transport that combines the advantages of gasoline and
electric engines.
The Piaggio HyS does not merely put
two engine types on a single vehicle.
The two engines are part of a sophisticated system
that combines combustion engine power
and electric motor pick-up. This hybrid scooter can go into
restricted traffic zones and travel out of town. It’s
two scooters in one —
practical, easy, fun all-round transport.
Piaggio HyS is a “parallel” hybrid in which a combustion engine and an
electric motor are mechanically and electronically linked and
simultaneously supply power to the wheel.
In this linked gas/electric engine,
the gasoline engine behaves like a normal catalysed four-stroke engine
with excellent performance and distance range on the one hand and low
emissions and fuel consumption on the other. The
automatic gearbox, electric ignition
and automatic start provide the usual zip and ease of use in
town as well as out-of-town trips. The
gas engine offers sparkling performance in standard running,
charging the electric motor
all the while. And, whenever
the rider needs to accelerate particularly fast — when starting from a
stopped position, for example — the
electric motor assists the engine, supplying about 85% extra
performances that gives the vehicle snappier, more efficient
acceleration over the first few metres, when it is really needed in town
riding.
In-built
electronic management combines
the two engines to offer not only better acceleration but also about
a reduction in fuel consumption
(up to 60 km/l) and in CO2
emissions, only 40 g/km (using 65% the hybrid modes and 35% the electric
one).
The Piaggio HyS is not your
average hybrid engine: other scooters may stop, but the HyS keeps going,
quick and silent, because it can also
work in electric-only mode with
a range up to 20 km.
The rider simply turns a handlebar switch
to shut down the combustion engine
and turn the Piaggio HyS into a totally
environment-friendly scooter, a zero-emissions vehicle that can
go into any area closed to other types of traffic. Another turn of the
switch and the thermal engine turns itself on and goes back to being the
main engine, charging the battery as it travels through areas open to
normal traffic.
The scooter’s range can be optimised in the garage by charging the
battery from an electricity source using the
220V battery charger. This
reduces running costs,
electricity being cheaper than gasoline.
All this technology is neatly tucked
away. The three Piaggio HyS versions
look like any standard Vespa LX, Piaggio X8 or MP3.
On X8 and MP3 versions the traction
batteries are hidden in the
under-seat storage space, which is sufficiently large to also
hold a helmet. The Vespa LX
hybrid prototype comes with a top case
to hold the helmet.
There is a battery charge indicator
on the dashboard. The
battery can be recharged from an
electricity source by inserting a normal cable into the plug
provided for this purpose. Charging
time is about three hour.
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