This unusual contraption is an electric scooter that was presented for the Lucky Strike J. Designer Award Italy, one of the most prestigious design awards for students and graduates. It’s called the “½ Equino” and reached the finals with an honorary mention.

It was presented by Marcello Pirovano from the Milan Polytechnic University, and is a scooter designed to recharge while riding it like a bicycle. This makes it a kind of assisted bike, and the ½ Equino (half horse) stores energy, maintaining the energy reserves at a constant level.

The riding mechanism works when the riding stands up on the pedals, weighing down the rear suspension in brief stints of one to two minutes. The energy produced in this way is collected by a generator that transforms it for battery use.

Continue reading: Scooter sharing: ½ Equino electric scooter design with big ideas

Here we can see the zero-emission bike, Motoczysz E1 PC in action on the Portland circuit in the US, filmed testing before the TTXGP. We already reported on the evolution of the Motoczysz C1 Contender to electric technology.

The bike looks like it rides well despite the heavy batteries and the three electric engines. The bike reaches 120 miles an hour in approximately eight seconds, and will compete in the the TTXGP, gran prix for ecological bikes on the isle of Man on June 12th.

More videos are after the jump.

Continue reading: Motoczysz E1 PC tests before TTXGP

To overcome the crisis in the motorcycle market while saving the planet, the guys at Ecoblog.it have suggested this ElectroCat custom built electric motorcycle as an environmentally friendly motorcycle when anti-pollution laws are on everyone’s minds.

The ElectroCat was designed by Eva Håkansson on the base of a Cagiva Freccia C12R from 1990. It has an electric engine that runs off lithium phosphate batteries that weigh 50 kg. The bike has a range of about 80km and a top speed of 100 km/hr.

Eva is currently doing battle with the Swedish bureaucracy to get the bike recognised as an ecological vehicle. We can only admire people and manufacturers who are putting their efforts into these projects in the face of climate change.

Continue reading: Custom built electric motorcycle: the Electrocat by Eva Håkansson

In these pics you can see the hybrid, three-wheel scooter presented by Peugeot at the Eicma show. Models such as these could become a new alternative in urban, ecological vehicles.

The main characteristic of this scooter is the all-wheel drive on three wheels. The thermal 125cc engine has Satelis Compressor and produces 15kw (20hp) from the rear wheel.

There are two 3kw electric engines situated near the front wheels, which are equipped with lithium ion batteries that are rechargeable in deceleration. The cooperation between the two engines is electronically controlled by the “By Wire” system.

Continue reading: Eicma 2008: Peugeot hybrid scooter prototype, Hymotion 3

Piaggio has presented its new MP3 Hybrid at the motorcycle show, Eicma, in Milan. This is a special motorcycle equipped with a hybrid system, destined for the urban motorcycle market. With plenty of development and research going into alternative and ecological motorcycles, this important urban sector could soon see a revolution.

The MP3 Hybrid is not simply a scooter with two engines, but a new advanced system of integrated engineering of a thermal engine with low environmental impact, and a zero-emission electric engine.

Both the systems have positive aspects along with some faults that are often complementary. Combustion engines have better range and power but give off emissions, while electric engines are environmentally friendly, but have limited range and speed.

Continue reading: Eicma 2008: Piaggio MP3 Hybrid

As seen at the Eicma show, Malaguti will have its hybrid scooter ready for 2009, a model that has been developed through Italian-Chinese collaboration and which became a truly specialised research project.

The project started in 2007 and had as its main objective, the commercialisation by 2010 of a vehicle with extremely low environmental impact, that could reduce emissions by more than 65 percent compared to current models.

Ecological matters are a recurring theme around the world and have a particular focus on the Asian continent where economic expansion and the rise of the middle class are rapidly increasing. The prototypes of this future scooter will be developed in two different versions: one for Europe and one for China.

Continue reading: Eicma 2008: hybrid scooter from Malaguti

After our news about the electric KTM bike, we introduce another manufacturer of electric bikes. Electric Motorsport is building bikes without exhaust and without gas which means no emissions. They are noiseless, low maintenance bikes, with no oil changes and just a battery to recharge. Electric Motorsport is based in Oakland, USA. Founded in October 2001 it builds Light Weight Zero Emission Electric Vehicles.

The latest model is the new Electric GPR-S model, a street legal bike built with a 14,2 Kw electric drive and Hi Power Lithium batteries. Top speed of this model is about 100 Km/h with a range of 60 to 100 Km. Charging time is four hours or 1.5 by speed charger.

More and more manufacturers are building and developing Zero Emission Vehicles. In the near future we also expect models from Japanese brands like Honda, Suzuki and others, to show their bikes and bring us to electric motorcycle tuning.

Source | electricmotorsport

Continue reading: Electric Motorsport: Zero Emission bikes

KTM has revealed that it will seriously be making an electric version and that within two years we should see a racing cross bike with zero emissions.

The Austrian company has already developed a prototype of a “ready to race” electric vehicle, with the intention of a two-year testing program before putting the bike into production. The motorcycle will be equipped with a lithium ion battery, rechargeable in an hour with 40 minutes of racing condition riding time, and 39Nm.

The engine group and battery will weigh only 17kg, proving that this style of bike, on removing the tank and classic characteristics of a fuel engine, should be truly light and agile. The price will be slighter higher than a current KTM enduro, but shouldn’t be anything too shocking.

Continue reading: KTM: electric motocross in 2010

The Swiss company Quantya produces an off-road electric vehicle called Track. Destined for track use only, this model now has an heir in the Strada.

This little gem is now available for city use, and the company has decided to equip it with everything required for city use.

The Quantya Strada EVO-1 is built on a TUV based and has lights, indicators and number plate holder. This ecological off-road is sold for about 7,800 euros.

Continue reading: Quantya EVO-1 Strada: ecological off road vehicles