Piaggio MP3 Hybrid Scooter WON’T Play Music, WILL Give 2 Litres/100km Fuel Economy

While the Chevy Volt may have aspirations of being the first plug-in hybrid car sold in the US, the Piaggio MP3 Hybrid is going to beat it all-ends-up for fuel economy.

With a goodly 2.0 l/100km (141mpg) fuel economy to its credit, the Piaggio MP3 – from the crowd responsible for the Vespa – runs on a system that follows the same principle as the Toyota Prius.

Plug the MP3 Hybrid into a regular power outlet, and a full charge can be achieved in about three hours.  The battery alone can be used to get around town as far as 65km, which is easily a day’s worth of scooting in the city, or a couple of trips to and from the suburbs, before you’d even need to worry about using the petrol engine.

The Piaggio MP3 Hybrid offers four operation modes: electric-only, or three hybrid modes optimised for performance, minimal fuel consumption, and fast battery recharge.

The Piaggio MP3 Hybrid will be available in the US for around US$8000 (AUD$12,400), but there’s no word on Aussie distribution as yet.  The regular non-hybrid MP3 can be had in Australia for AU$9,990, so here’s hoping!