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<\/p>\nAmong the iconic designs of Italy\u2019s vibrant postwar period, few capture the essence of La Dolce Vita like Vespas and Lambrettas, the free-spirited motor scooters that brought mobility to the masses and became beloved across Italy, and subsequently, the world.<\/p>\n
While the two companies still make scooters, those early models \u2014 whose whining two-stroke engines spew plumes of aromatic smoke \u2014 are by far the most sought by collectors, some commanding up to $30,000.<\/p>\n
But just as vintage scooters are reaching a new peak of popularity, a wave of emissions regulations aimed at reducing pollution threatens their access to Europe\u2019s city centers. Within every regulation, though, lies an opportunity, and one lifelong scooter enthusiast has seized it firmly by the tailpipe.<\/p>\n
Niall McCart, an Irishman from the city of Armagh, got his first Vespa at 16. De rigueur for a youth swept up in Britain\u2019s early-1980s Mod revival, the Vespa was eminently practical as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cA two-stroke is a very simple mechanical structure,\u201d Mr. McCart said, with a modesty common to the mechanically gifted. \u201cI could fix it with a screwdriver and a hammer\u201d \u2014 an ability that would eventually serve him well on rallies along the English coast, and on extended tours of Europe and India.<\/p>\n
In 1989, at the age of 21, Mr. McCart moved to London, where, after stints in the building trade and delivering packages on a Vespa, he began working as a mechanic at a scooter shop. In 2000, he opened his own concern in a garden shed. Today, his business, Retrospective Scooters, occupies a 3,500-square-foot warehouse in the East End town of Walthamstow.<\/p>\n
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As Mr. McCart\u2019s business grew, so did restrictions on older vehicles. The European Union\u2019s first Low Emission Zones were established in 1996. By 2018, there were over 260, and still rising.<\/p>\n
London has one such zone, as well as an extra-stringent Ultra Low Emission Zone, in the city center. Introduced in April 2019, the more stringent zone will expand substantially this October. To drive inside it, owners of polluting scooters must pay a daily fee of 12.50 pounds (about $17). Failure to pay can result in a hefty fine.<\/p>\n
In 2017, with the end of cheap and dirty scootering looming, Mr. McCart posed a question to a friend and fellow scooter enthusiast, John Chubb: \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if we could make our old Vespas electric?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Chubb recalled the moment vividly. \u201cWe were sitting in a tent in a music festival in Cornwall, and he was saying the future is electric. I said, \u2018I reckon I could build one of those.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He could also bring a raft of technical competencies to the project. A retired Royal Navy commander with degrees in electrical engineering and rocket science, Mr. Chubb is also an expert in anti-ship missiles, a qualification whose benefit, though perhaps unquantifiable, couldn\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n
Mr. McCart\u2019s brief was explicit. The conversion \u201cwas not to interfere in any way with the original design and setup of the scooters,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t do any cutting or welding or destruction of the original chassis.\u201d And critically important for preserving a scooter\u2019s value, the process had to be reversible.<\/p>\n
An encounter with a Chinese manufacturer at a motorcycle show in Milan in 2017 proved instrumental.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chinese have been riding electric scooters for 15 years-plus,\u201d Mr. McCart said. \u201cThey\u2019ve done it and made it and perfected it. They had it all laid out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Chubb, meanwhile, hobnobbed with the chief technical officer of QS Motor, a firm in Zhejiang Province that makes motors for electric scooters and e-bikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a really good conversation,\u201d Mr. Chubb said. \u201cI\u2019d done a whole load of first-principles calculations about the power of an electric motor and how that would work in an electric scooter. I saw all his equations, and he and I did it exactly the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing that data was very interesting,\u201d he continued, \u201cbecause we knew exactly where the sweet spot was in terms of the specifications of what we wanted to run as a motor, and we could run it more or less to optimum efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. McCart and Mr. Chubb devised the basic plan: Pull the gas tank and put a lithium-ion battery in its place, and replace the scooter\u2019s original swing arm (which supports the engine and rear wheel) with a custom-made swing arm that holds a wheel with a built-in hub motor.<\/p>\n
Mr. Chubb set to work on the prototype, meeting periodically with Mr. McCart, who fine-tuned various components. In June 2018, Mr. McCart unveiled their creation \u2014 an electrified 1976 Vespa Primavera \u2014 at the Vespa World Days rally in Belfast, Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The initial reaction was skeptical. \u201cThese guys were purists,\u201d Mr. McCart said. \u201cThey were against it when they seen it,\u201d he recalled, \u201cbut as soon as they drove it to the other end of the car park and back again, they had the biggest grin on their face.\u201d<\/p>\n
One rider made a pivotal suggestion: \u201cYou\u2019ve got to sell it as a kit.\u201d Mr. McCart, who had planned to offer electric conversions only as a service, embraced the idea. \u201cI thought, \u2018He\u2019s right. I\u2019ve got to make it really simple.\u2019 The next step was to try and make a plug-and-play kit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three years later, Retrospective Scooters sells kits for five types of vintage Vespas and Lambrettas. Costing \u00a33,445 (about $4,750), each includes a 64-volt, 28-amp-hour battery that can push a scooter to a top speed of 50 miles an hour and go 30 to 35 miles on a charge.<\/p>\n
Certain scooters can accommodate two or three batteries. A Lambretta GP for instance, packed with three lithium-ion units, can go 120 miles between charges. Mr. McCart, though, thinks a single battery is sufficient.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not forget what scooters were invented for \u2014 traveling in a 20-to-30-mile radius of where you lived,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
To date, Mr. McCart has sold 60 kits \u2014 24 in Britain (20 of them installed at his shop), and 36 to customers overseas, mostly, and somewhat surprisingly to Mr. McCart, in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expected more to go into Europe,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there\u2019s quite a lot of bureaucracy and official inspections of any vehicle alterations, so there\u2019s really no incentive for Europeans to buy our kit with all that up against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last summer, Danny Montoya, the owner of a children\u2019s woodworking studio in San Francisco, installed a kit in his 1973 Vespa Rally 180. Mr. Montoya had owned the scooter since 1999, but in recent years had grown uneasy with its pollution, not to mention the constant reek of petroleum.<\/p>\n
A capable do-it-yourselfer, he initially considered cobbling together his own electric kit with information gleaned from internet message boards, but when he came across Mr. McCart\u2019s, he said, he thought: \u201cWhoa, this guy has actually done the work.\u201d Although the price gave him pause, after corresponding with Mr. McCart, who promised to assist with any technical issues, Mr. Montoya said, \u201cOK, this is legit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Montoya estimates he spent 20 to 30 hours on the project, the most complex part of which, he said, was ensuring that all of the electrical connections were correct. Mr. McCart acknowledges that at the time, in late 2020, the installation guide was rudimentary. Since then, he explained, the design of the kit and the instructions have been improved so that someone with basic mechanical skills should be able to complete the installation in about 16 hours.<\/p>\n
These days, Mr. Montoya seeks any excuse to ride his electrified machine, which performs just as advertised, delivering 30 miles on a charge, even on San Francisco\u2019s hills. Recalling his first ride, Mr. Montoya said: \u201cIt was very weird. A normal scooter is so loud, all you hear is the motor. This is so quiet, all you hear is the wind.\u201d<\/p>\n
On a recent afternoon, as Mr. Montoya did a few drive-bys, a reporter struggled to discern which was louder \u2014 the soft hum of the motor or the sound of the tire treads licking the pavement.<\/p>\n
The new incarnation is so stealthy, in fact, Mr. Chubb finds that \u201cwhen you live in a quiet village, people walk right in front of you.\u201d He\u2019s looking into noise generators that could produce anything from the thrum of a Harley-Davidson to the futuristic racket of a \u201cStar Wars\u201d Podracer.<\/p>\n
Mr. McCart, who commutes every day on his electrified Vespa, takes a different approach to unwary pedestrians: \u201cI shout at them. I say, \u2018Oi!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n