Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. (Yamaha) announced the launch of its fully electric powered scooter called NEO’S and it is available for sale in Europe starting March 2022. The scooter will be manufactured in Vietnam by Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co., Ltd.
NEO’S is a small scooter which Yamaha equates it to a 50cc ICE powered scooter but it is powered by Yamaha Integrated Power Unit II (YIPU II) that promises quiet and lasting acceleration. The scooter comes equipped with 2.5kW battery capable of covering distances of up to 37 km (WMTC cycle) on a single charge. The battery is designed to be removable, hence making it easily serviceable and better, swappable in the future.
Yamaha is a well known global motorcycle manufacturer that needs no introduction, but what is more interesting than it is joining the electrification race is the fact that this scooter is one of the first vehicles to be born out of new MOTOROID design concept envisioned by Yamaha with its long-standing “Jin-Ki Kanno” design philosophy. Having witnessed the success of similar approach taken by another manufacturer Mazda with its “Jinba-Ittai” philosophy that gave birth of Skyactiv technology, we can expect Yamaha’s new line-up of vehicles to have improved riding experience.
Yamaha claims that European launch is to meet the demands for low powered electric scooters in Europe but we believe that the bigger bulk of its target consumers reside in ASEAN nations where it is planning to launch next. This could also be the reason why the scooter’s production hub is based in Vietnam. Our guess is that Vietnam will be the first country in South East Asia that will get hold of this exciting vehicle.
We will be definitely following up this story closely, please do stay tuned!
