New hybrid scooter concept from Peugeot

Nowadays, when everybody is concerned about energy crisis and ecological problems, appear many interesting concept vehicles that are designed to be more ecologically clean and efficient. Amounts of hybrid cars that run both on fuel and electricity are increasing every year, which is a very good tendency. Even scooters didn't avoid "environmentalisation", and appear many concepts of scooters that run completely on electricity or on a hybrid engines. This time, well-known French car manufacturer Peugeot decided to present their vision on the environment-friendly scooter.

This concept is interestingly combined from many previous ideas, taken from other manufacturers. It combines best sides of BMW C1, Piaggio MP3 and Toyota Prius - roof, windshield and driver protection from the first, two front wheels from second and hybrid engine from third. Thanks to the hybrid engine, it can operate in three modes - fuel-only, hybrid or electric-only mode. Front wheels are equipped with two 4hp electric engines - one for each wheel, while rear wheel is driven by 25hp 125cc combustion engine. It is designed to primarily use electric engines and to turn off rear wheel engine if it is not necessary, for example in traffic jams. Another interesting feature is system of recuperative braking which charges batteries while braking, so batteries are constantly recharged while driving in a city. Electric engine usage radically improved consumption of fuel - new concept scooter "eats" only 1 l of gas for 190 km! There is no information about battery capacity, so it is unknown, how far it will go in electric mode before batteries run dry.

Peugeot made an interesting move - they want to play on the recent wave of ecologically friengly vehicles, and their concept looks great. Even if it is only an idea now, it has big chances to be mass produced. As was proved by BMW C1, scooter with a driver protection and windshield is a very good way to stimulate usage of small scooters instead of cars. Maybe this conceptual scooter will be able not only to reduce the fuel consumption and air pollution, but it will help in decreasing traffic jams that occur in big cities very often.