Zoomi Life

The newly-formed Light Electric Vehicle Association (LEVA) was formed to associate western LEV manufacturers and dealers and to better form alliances in Asia. The association plans to hold its first member meeting at the Taipei Cycle Show March 17-20 in China. The group’s first organizational meeting will take place in Shanghai just before the show.

Read More: Light Electric Vehicle Association to Meet at Taipei Cycle Show

I’ve been pretty curious lately about the XM-5000Li electric moped. X-treme Scooter’s newest e-moped for 2009, the XM-5000Li looks damn good and has some nice technical specs: a 60mph top speed, 80+ mile range, and a six hour recharge rate. But it’s hard to get any information out of X-treme past the marketing found on their website, and their products have been hit-or-miss in the past in terms of quality. Their packaging hasn’t been great either. So I’ve been really interested to find someone’s personal experience with buying and receiving the XM-5000Li.

Read More: Unboxing the XM-5000Li Electric Moped: One New Owners Experience

Vespa scooters (and their knockoffs) are extremely popular little machines. I’m not sure why, since I really don’t like them much, but it appears that their “retro” looks appeal to a lot of people. Enough people that a company has started taking the noxious 2-stroke engines out of them and converting these scooters into all-electric rides.

Read More: The Vespa Electric Conversion by Soundspeed Scooters

FalconEV, a Florida-based electric vehicle company, has just unveiled a new electric scooter to be available for purchase in mid-2009. The as-yet-unnamed electric scooter not only looks unique, but has got some solid specs as well.

Read More: FalconEV Announces New Electric Scooter - Needs your Help Naming It

It’s no secret Detroit’s not a great place to live right now. The recession, which has affected the entire country, has been particularly hard on Detroit’s auto industry. American auto giants Ford, GM and Chrysler are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and not even the recent auto bailout guarantees that they’ll recover. And it’s certainly not doing much good to all the Detroit-area businesses whose profits are suffering due to the economic domino effect of Big Auto’s troubles.

Read More: As Detroit Suffers, Local EV Retailer Prospers

The motorcycle show going on in New York right now will see the debut of the new Vectrix models VX-1e and VX-2 on Friday. These much-anticipated new scooters in the Vectrix line promise some variety in the scooter market.

Read More: New Vectrix VX-1e and VX-2 to Debut Friday

The small “city” of Eagle, Idaho (anyone who’s been there knows that the word “city” is loosely applied) will be getting Vectrix scooters for their police officers to test. The scooters, on loan from a local Harley-Davidson dealer, will be outfitted as their New York City counterparts: with police decals, lights, etc.

Read More: Eagle, Idaho Joins New York City: Cops On Scooters

Sometimes failure and adversity can pleasantly turn into opportunity. Take this morning, for example. I utterly failed to wake up on time to make it to today’s Santa Monica Electric Vehicle parade, an event I’d been looking forward to for some time. However, my failure to arrive on time also presented me with an opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with Adam Maoz of Zero Emission Motors, and to test drive his Volt electric moped.

Read More: Volt Electric Moped Test Drive

It’s not often that I say something like “Wow” when I look at a scooter or moped. I don’t generally like them. This one is different. The XM-5000Li electric moped has a lot of great features for such a low-priced machine, including a boatload of power. Most mopeds are underpowered little things without much excuse for their existence. Not this one.

Read More: Closer Look: The XM-5000Li Electric Moped by X-Treme Scooters

As with our electric car picks for 2008, these electric scooters are all available in the USA now or will be in 2009 and are top picks for various reasons: design, capability, innovation, etc. Most of you know by now that scooters are one of my least favorite things, but there are an amazing number of them on the EV market and they seem to be popular as commuters and all-around “get around” machines.

Read More: Our Top 5 Electric Scooters Of 2008