Lambretta Electric Scooter India Launch At Auto Expo 2020

It will be an electric version of the Lambretta G325 Special concept scooter, which it unveiled at the 2019 EICMA

• It will be the first electric Lambretta and will witness a global debut in India.
• Expect the upcoming electric scooter to command a premium pricing.
• Coming back to the G325 Special concept, it gets a monocoque chassis with interchangeable side panels.

Lambretta has unveiled a new concept at the 2019 EICMA, called the Lambretta G325 Special. The Italian brand says it will be the flagship model and the production version will be finalised within the next few months. But more importantly, the Italian brand has announced that a “high-power electric version” of the G Special will be launched at the 2020 Auto Expo in Greater Noida.

Interestingly, this upcoming electric scooter will be the first of its kind for Lambretta. The global debut of this electric scooter in India goes to show how serious the brand is about our market. By the time it is launched, Bajaj would’ve already commenced deliveries of its first electric scooter, the Chetak, which will be the Italian scooter’s primary rival, apart from the Ather 450. Expect the upcoming Lambretta electric scooter to be priced at a premium, likely a little over a lakh rupees, ex-showroom. 

Lambretta had already announced its plan to go electric for the Indian market back in December 2018. The brand had said it aims to set up an assembly plant in Mumbai, and make India the production hub to export scooters to its neighbouring countries as well as Africa. Lambretta has partnered with Lohia Auto and Delhi-based Bird Group for its business in India. 

Representative Image

Interestingly, Lohia Auto also has a partnership with UM for the Indian market but the cruiser maker made a hasty exit due to the changing emission and safety norms, and also possibly due to the competition. That said, it is unlikely that this issue would affect Lohia’s relationship with Lambretta.

Coming back to the G325 Special concept, it is built on a steel monocoque chassis with interchangeable side panels for greater customisation. It also gets an all-LED lighting system and an LCD instrument cluster. Another novel feature is that the floorboard contains a projector, which projects the Lambretta logo on the surface when the rider approaches the scooter.  While the brand hasn’t revealed any details about the engine in the concept, we reckon it could be a liquid-cooled single-cylinder motor considering the presence of a water pump outlet. The scooter rides on retro-looking trailing link suspension up front and a monoshock at the rear. Brakes include disc on both ends with ABS.

Also Read: Okinawa Lite Electric Scooter Launched In India

An interesting tidbit about Lambretta is that the brand has a history in India. The now-defunct company Automobile Products of India used to sell Lambrettas under its licence. It was then taken over by another Indian brand, Scooters India Limited, which bought the trademark and manufacturing rights for the Italian brand. The brand was pretty popular in the 80s but then presumably due to changing norms and trends, it shut shop in 1997. Now, with the reintroduction of the brand, and with its first upcoming product being an electric scooter, Lambretta hopes to make a good second coming.