Goodbye Hummer? Hello electric scooter

We don't think the young lady is impressed. This ain't going past the first date!

What do you think?

At scooterhire.co.nz we are curious, but not impressed.

It would appear to us to be a marketing exercise by motor giant GM that have collaborated with Segway to fast track a feel-good environmental statement.

GM was once a proud icon of American industry that have fallen from grace due to years of complacency, miss management and producing bland cars that no-one wanted.

The final nail in the coffin was acceptance of corporate welfare from the American government. Sadly, this has appeared to have stifled any creativity and passion left within the company.

Daniel Nasaw in Washington

guardian.co.uk

7 April 2009

Ailing car multinational General Motors tries to green itself by collaborating with Segway and dumping Hummer

General Motors and Segway unveiled a prototype two-seat electric scooter today, intended to ease urban congestion and pollution and help GM recast itself as environmentally progressive and technologically innovative.

The vehicle, named Puma (for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), is the product of an unlikely collaboration between an ailing American industrial behemoth known for manufacturing gas-guzzlers and a privately held company founded on technological wizardry.

The companies have no plans as yet to mass produce the vehicle and offer it for sale, instead characterising today's announcement as a demonstration of technology.

"It's a directional statement that we're making ... an urban transportation we need to reinvent how we move people around in cities and towns," Segway president and chief executive officer, Jim Norrod, said in an interview.

The announcement comes eight days after President Barack Obama challenged General Motors and Chrysler to "restructure, to modernise, and to make themselves more competitive". At the same time, Obama fired GM's chairman and chief executive, Rick Wagoner, who had failed to stem a long-term decline in the company's US sales and whom Obama said lacked vision to take the company forward.

General Motors has already received $15bn (£10bn) in bailout loans from the taxpayer, and Obama demanded last week that the company devise a radical restructuring plan if it hopes to receive more funds.

General Motors and Segway began talks on the project 18 months ago, before the taxpayer bailout, but the company was keen today to promote the Puma as a symbol of the company's break from tradition.

"Imagine small, nimble electric vehicles that know where other moving objects are and avoid running into them," said GM's vice-president of research and development, Larry Burns. Meanwhile, the company has signalled that it may jettison its Hummer brand, the massive, much-loathed military-style vehicles.

The new vehicle can hit a top speed of about 35 miles an hour and its lithium-ion battery system gives it a range of 35 miles, the company said. A full recharge for the vehicle takes between eight and 10 hours, but uses only 40 pence worth of power.

"We think 35 miles in a city is pretty reasonable to do in a day," Norrod said. "Then you get back and you charge it overnight, and we think that's sufficient."

The company has not tested the vehicle in poor weather or on terrain rougher than pavements. The company said in a statement that it had "no current plans to offer it for sale" and did not suggest a price range but added that "it's probably less than most current small car prices".

Norrod said mass production would depend on whether cities created the necessary infrastructure – "bike lanes could be a good start," he said. He said London, Paris, Abu Dhabi and Singapore would be likely candidates for the vehicle, as would Indianapolis, Atlanta and Washington in the United States.

The vehicle rides on two side-by-side wheels, but like the $5,000 stand-up Segway on the market since 2002, the Puma stabilises and balances itself. It boasts a zero turning-radius, making it easy to squeeze into tight parking spots.

The vehicle's appearance, which resembles a double-width wheelchair with a windscreen canopy, drew sniggers on its first outing.

"How would you imagine a guy picking you up at your place in that thing?" a CNN anchorman, TJ Holmes, asked a woman colleague, with a chuckle.

Source: Click HERE

Quit the car and join the scooterlution

At scooterhire.co.nz, we like to see that the popularity of the scooter is soaring as people trade in the car for a fun and easy method of transportation.

07 April 2009
www.nzherald.co.nz
By Rebecca Barry

It was crashing the car that did it. The car wasn't mine but it seemed to think it belonged in my garden when it reversed off the driveway, leaving a dangling bumper on the left and a dent a hammer could have made on the right.

Go on, try parking me somewhere else, it said as I stared dumbly at the carnage I'd just created. Spend money on me. I'm not even yours. Ha ha ha.

Meanwhile a scooter gleamed imperiously from the top of the drive like the skinny cow who just fitted into your old jeans. A friend had been zooming around on it for the past year, trying to convince me to invest in his uber-urban, eco-conscious, warrant-of-fitness-less lifestyle, one that precipitated his wearing of leather jackets, padded trousers and a smug expression.

I was starting to see his point. I didn't have far to travel to the office (upstairs at home), my parents, the supermarket and the gym were only 10 minutes away and if I joined the gym and started driving there, I'd have to get through Bangkok traffic first.

Also, after a year away in which I revelled in the freedom of the two-wheeler, I'd clearly forgotten how to drive a car. It appears I'm not alone in reconsidering my transport options.

Registration figures from the New Zealand Transport Agency show nearly 5000 Aucklanders drive a scooter, almost a quarter of New Zealand's moped population. Last year, registration figures were up by 139 on the previous year and although retailers say sales have slumped since the recession kicked in, shops such as Kingsland's Scootling report an increase in hireage and repairs.

Even winter doesn't appear to put people off. Last year, more than 400 Aucklanders registered mopeds in May and June, more than any other months.

On one hand it's exciting to think of Auckland as a Romanesque city of beeping Vespas. On the other, it looks as though hordes of angry fashion designers have taken to the streets on ride-on sewing machines. Everywhere I look a big, buzzing mosquito goes by, the driver ramrod straight on its back.

It's almost impossible to slouch on a scooter, probably to the behest of the 40-somethings keen to relive their motorbike-riding youth but with less danger and expense. Who needs pilates when you can strengthen your lumbar on the way to work?

But what was once considered a wimpy alternative to a motorbike has become a fashion accessory more functional than a belt on a dress without belt loops, perhaps in part thanks to a legion of high-profile riders - Gwyneth Paltrow, Jamie Oliver and, closer to home, Heart of the City's Alex Swney.

Most scooter drivers I know are pragmatists rather than trendsetters, although there are plenty of style-conscious scootlings judging by the prominence of shops such as The Retro Scooter Company.
They live within 10km of work, generally close to the city. They're sick of being stuck in traffic. They like that it costs $5-$10 to fill up the tank and nothing to park.

They're also all men, one of whom gets a kick out of walking into his corporate office with his fluoro safety vest on, prompting his workmates to ask where his roading tools are. "Perhaps they're just jealous their wife won't let them get one," muses his brother, a fellow scootling.

Well, the wives have a point. The brother was rear-ended on Pitt St and sent hurtling off his scooter which, thankfully, sustained more damage than he did. This went through my mind as I watched the Shortland Street crew film a scooter accident scene in Rarotonga last week.

The victim lay on the grassy verge, covered in fake blood, his vehicle resting benignly behind a sharp rock. It would have been entertaining to watch had I not just gained my moped drivers' licence and was about to go for my first blat around the island. There's no buffer from the world like there is in a car. The wind whipping past your face is warm and smoky. Obstacles don't beep and swear but bark and cluck.

After a few days of exploring the island's roads, I started to imagine doing the same in Auckland, buoyed by advice from Sean Willmot, editor of scooter magazine Rush Hour, who says now is a good time to buy new as there are lots of good bargains to be had.

He points out the recession will lead to impulse-buying on cheap, easy-to-maintain forms of transport and that consumers are wary of looming congestion tax. Well all that aside, I think I'm ready to join the scooterlution, if only to avoid reversing down the driveway.

Source: Click HERE

Vespa Advertising Complaint

Oops! Vespa pushes the boundaries

Vespa, throughout their history have been known to push the boundaries of advertising.

Earlier this year the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in New Zealand considered a complaint from a M Gerrard and J Barry.

This was over an ad for the the “GTS 300 SUPER. THE FASTEST VESPA EVER” that was published in NZ Rush Hour magazine. The ad depicted a cheetah that appeared to have been run over by a Vespa scooter.

The complainants were upset that the picture implied that "the mode of transport can be used to run over big cats".

In response the advertiser said:

"The theme of the advert was to express that the Vespa GTS300 is a fast scooter. The use of the cheetah was a tongue in cheek reference to this, not to imply that the scooter can run over a big cat, or any animal for that matter. The Vespa GTS300 advert is intended to be humourous, and not to offend or cause distress.”

After consideration the ASA, "took into account the darkly humorous and hyperbolic reference to speed, the cheetah being one of the fastest land animals in the world, and concurred with the Advertiser that there was nothing in the advertisement to suggest that the incident was real, or that would encourage reader’s to try and run over animals on their scooters. It noted the surrounding environs appeared to be a desert or other desolate off road area, and was certainly not a sealed road where a scooter would be driven".

The complaint was not upheld

Source: Click HEREVespa GTS 300 Super