Mopeds have come a long way from their early days as glorified bicycles and nerd-haulers. They aren't just for geeks anymore, but have grown up into stylish and sleek performance machines. The Vectrix VX-1 is one of the top machines on this list and is fast becoming the world's leader in all-electric, road worthy electric mopeds. Even the NYPD is fielding them!
These mopeds (they look more like a small motorcycle to me) debuted in America in 2006 and went into broader national sales in 2008 and are now available in most major cities in both the U.S.A. and the EU. The '08 and '09 models retail for about $11,000 (before rebates or incentives) with all the trimmings and are made (for the most part) in the company's Massachusetts plant while EU models are made primarily in Poland.
Sounds pretty expensive. Right? It is, all at once, for a "moped." Consider this, though: if you continue to drive your car, what will that cost? Let's do some quick math. Over a year, the average person will drive their car to work about 250 days of the year. At a commute of about 30 miles round trip, gas prices at $2.50/gallon, and miles per gallon at 25 in-city, that works out to $750 in gas (7500 miles, 300 gallons). That's an optimistic set of numbers and does not include maintenance costs, but it gets the point across. A VX-1 moped, under the same conditions, would have less than half the maintenance costs of a car and zero gasoline purchases. Ad in the other errands you use a car for and you can see why these are becoming so desirable to people.
Models have been test-driven and adopted by several large groups, including the New York City Police Department and police departments in Scotland, Italy, France, and others. So these aren't fly-by-night machines, but real workhorses. Their 24-month warranty is standard. Of course, that means nothing without specs. Right?
Exactly. So let's look at how these electric mopeds stack up. The VX-1 2009 model specifications are pretty impressive for an electric moped. We'll start with the fast numbers, the ones that will make-or-break this electric for most daily users:
Max Speed: 62mph / 100km/h
Acceleration: 0-31mph (50km/h) in 3.6 seconds
Range: 68 miles under optimum conditions (35 miles average)
Battery recharge time: 80% charge in 2 hours (110v)
Estimated battery life: 10 years or 50,000 miles (80,000 km)
Those numbers will probably decide it for you. For some of us, an all-electric is not likely because of range restrictions, but for suburban and urban commuters, this little moped is a very likely candidate. This is also one of the very few all-electrics available right now that is federally highway and freeway rated. That's an important consideration for many.
The VX-1 has a lot of other impressive features besides it's core specs. It's really friendly LCD instrumentation is one. These can be seen in most light conditions and tell you at a glance where you are in terms of speed, battery power, etc. There's even a "backwards mileage counter" on the display that shows you about how many more miles you can go under your current riding conditions.
The whole bike weighs about 450 pounds and has a "trunk" (under the seat) big enough for a full-face helmet to fit into, plus a small glove box at the front big enough for a cell phone, iPod, etc. (even with accessories). An optional cargo box ads even more storage. This means no nerdy backpack required while riding your moped.
Other great ideas like regenerative braking, where you turn the throttle forwards (rather than back) to decelerate without using your physical brakes, can ad up to 15% of the power returning to the moped. This form of braking still activates the brake lights, so it's not dangerous to use it in traffic. Standard hand brakes (working like a motorcycle's disc brakes) are also on the moped.
So there you have it, the Vectrix VX-1 electric moped. Watch for further developments too, as they test market their new three-wheeled model, which has better stability and handling.
