Piaggio rei-invents the 3-wheeler – sort of

The design looks very similar to the three-wheeled Scooop, which rival Italjet had nearly ready for production a few years ago, before it got into financial trouble. Italjet has been talking of relaunching with scooters powered by Piaggio, though it's hard to accurately say what has transferred between the two when it comes to the three-wheeler.

What is unique about the concept is the body and the front wheels of the scooter tilt much like a normal machine, but we're told the twin front end, while adding significant weight, adds a lot of grip. The Piaggio version was shown briefly at the Bologna Motor Show last December, using 250 and 400 powerplants.

Piaggio has a long history of producing small commercial three-wheel vans, called Ape, but they had twin wheels on a load-carrying axle at the rear of the machine.