All Tests – Getting in touch with the MP3 Hybrid – The Hy Tech touch

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Getting in touch with the MP3 Hybrid

All Tests - Getting in touch with the MP3 Hybrid - The Hy Tech touch

The best-selling two-wheeler in France today – yes! -, the Piaggio MP3 arrives this fall with a new technology on the market: the hybrid! Site was able to test it a few days before its arrival at the dealership: first impressions !

The Hy Tech touch

During our little getaway, we were able to test the other engine modes: the one called "Hybrid Charge" differs from "Power" only on one point: "above 30 km / h, the electric motor stops assisting the heat engine and recharges the battery, it becomes a generator", explains Thierry Bonnin, technical inspector at Piaggio France..

In use, even if you can juggle while continuing to roll between "Power" and "Charge" modes with a single press on the "Hy Tech" button, you have to be a keen observer to notice a difference in performance. At the pump, however, it should be more remarkable: "in Hybrid Charge mode, Italian engineers estimate consumption at 2.5 l / 100km", continues the technical manager.

A figure which corresponds to the average consumption of 1.7 l / 100km estimated earlier, on the basis of use at 65% hybrid and 35% electric: 1.7 l to travel 65 km corresponds well to 2.6 l / 100km … CQFD !

At less than 20 km / h, the MP3 Hybrid accepts to switch to "Electric" mode. This passage runs smoothly at the level of the transmission and the only notable change is audible: we only hear the slight brushing of the tires on the asphalt …

It will be noted all the same that by going from the hybrid to the "all electric", the maximum speed of the scooter goes from about 100 km / h ("it was timed at 99 km / h during homologation", Piaggio tells us) at… 30 km / h !

On paper – or in this case on your screen – this maximum speed seems very weak … But in situation, in the middle of passers-by of the Trocadero for example, it is largely sufficient! We will often even prefer to reduce speed so as not to surprise pedestrians and other road users, who cannot hear electric vehicles approaching..

To accelerate, do not hesitate to wring out the right handle: we would also have liked a faster reaction to the opening of the watts … as well as a few additional watts! "Be careful, here you have to consider the torque and not the power: having 15 Nm from the start is much better than a heat engine", retorts Paolo Capozzella.

Certainly … We would therefore have appreciated a few additional "newton-meters" to make the tricycle take off more effectively or to ensure more vigorous recovery in the bends, especially in "all electric" mode. !

"We believe that the electric motor installed on the MP3 Hybrid is sufficient to go up to 30 km / h. Unbridled, it allows to reach 60 km / h", however, says the Research and Development engineer.

Likewise, the range of 20 km seems rather limited but here again, the Italians put forward a perfectly valid argument: "the purely urban journeys of 125 scooter users rarely exceed this distance".

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