Piaggio Vehicles enters electric cargo three-wheeler market with Ape E-Xtra FX

Small commercial vehicle maker Piaggio Vehicles on Tuesday marked its entry into the electric three-wheeler cargo segment with the launch of Ape E-Xtra FX at an introductory price of ₹3.12 lakh. The company also rolled out Ape E-City, the 2021 version of its passenger electric three-wheeler, at an introductory price of ₹2.83 lakh (both prices, ex-showroom and post FAME-II subsidy). Both the three-wheelers come with fixed batteries.

The Ape e-Xtra FX comes with a 9.5 kWh lithium-ion battery and fitted with a six-feet cargo deck. It can be customized as per the requirement of the function such as, as a delivery vans and garbage collector, among others. Both the new e-three-wheelers also get features such as blue vision headlamps, regenerative braking, multi-information instrument cluster and boost mode, hill hold assist as well as automatic transmission.

The e-cargo three-wheeler can also cater to various other segments such as e-commerce, gas cylinders, mineral water bottles and vegetable transport besides FMCG. Piaggio also claims that the running cost of the vehicle is less and it offers last mile goods movement at an economical cost. The zero emission and superior drive makes it the logical choice for last mile transport," said Malind Kapur, Senior Vice President of the company.

Both the vehicles come with a 3 year/one-lakh kilometer warranty as well as a three-year free maintenance package as an introductory offer for all customers.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Piaggio Group, Piaggio Commercial Vehicles had ventured into the electric three-wheeler market in December of 2019 with its first version of the Ape E-City, that comes with a swappable battery. “Post the launch of Ape' e-City with swappable technology in 2019, we are now introducing the fixed battery technology solutions to serve the varied needs of customers," said Diego Graffi, Chairman and Managing Director of the company.