The Netherlands is the number one marketplace in Europe for electric vehicles (followed by France and Germany). So it was no fluke that Yamaha chose the country for the press launch of the all-new electric NEO’s.
Amsterdam itself has had a big rechargeable industry for many years with all manner of devices available over the counter of brightly lit canal-side shops but we weren’t in town for that kind of test ride.
25-year heritage
The scooter may be new but the NEO’s name goes back to 1997 when the very successful petrol version was launched, that’s now been replaced with an all-electric version and we were here to ride it in its natural backyard.
Just a month after Yamaha released details of their ‘Yamaha Motors Switches On’ campaign the first product in what will be a comprehensive collection was ready to ride. I wasn’t overly excited to be heading off to Amsterdam to test a 50cc equivalent electric scooter but I soon changed my thoughts when I realised just what a thoroughly good job they’d made of it.
Three decades of development
On the face of things, it may well seem like Yamaha are late to the electric scooter party but they’ve got a history going right back to the 1990s when they developed their first Power Assist System (PAS). That went on to become the tech used on the world’s first production eBike. Since then they’ve produced over seven million compact and lightweight drive units for eBikes used as OEM equipment on many other cycle manufacturers’ products.
The NEO’s certainly isn’t the first Yamaha electric scooter either, in 1991 they displayed their first one called ‘The Frog’ at the Tokyo Motor Show and they’ve also had the EC-05 produced in Taiwan in partnership with Gogoro.
Now it’s time for Yamaha to pin their environmental flag firmly to the mast and meet the booming demand for electric vehicles under their own name and with a varied product range.
A typical press launch sees a selection of new models draped around a hotel lobby to tempt the visiting journalists and I was quite impressed with what I saw on arrival in Amsterdam.
EV stripe
The new NEO’s comes in a choice of Midnight Black or Milky White, along with Yamaha’s neon ‘EV’ stripe which will come to signify that its part of their electric range. The NEO’s has quite a striking design with twin squared-off headlights complete with LED halo running lights. It also has a typical (and tactile) Yamaha stripe running front to back through the middle of the scooter with the company logo relieved in textured plastic. That stripe ends in the tail section where the rear light cluster sits above the number plate as a separate entity rather than the more common integrated lights.
The NEO’s looks and is fairly compact with flat floorboards making it easy to mount and dismount, those floorboards are also handy for carrying things (they’re roomy enough for six 2-litre bottles of water), or you can leave a bag hanging off the foldable hook. There’s also a 12v point located inside the cubby hole to the left of the legshields. A couple of other details jump out at me, firstly the hub motor is contained inside a stylish looking rear hub. With single-sided rear suspension and no ugly box section steel holding it together (as seen on many lesser eScooters), it means the wheel is very easy to take off for tyre changes etc. On the other side of the scooter the wheel attaches to what looks like a conventional scooter engine, it’s a nice touch and helps to make the scooter feel like the premium product it is (that’s premium in quality not necessarily price). That dummy engine acts as the swinging arm and it also contains the controller for the hub motor.
Own it for £40 a month
Whilst we’re talking about price so early on, this scooter costs £3099 including the £150 Plug-In grant. That puts it a few quid above the excellent £2500 Piaggio One but still isn’t overly expensive, especially on a PCP deal where you can finance the scooter for just £41.12 (with a deposit of £751.25), or £45.80 if you put £601 down. That’s cheaper than a week’s bus fares and makes owning an electric scooter achievable for pretty much everybody.
Swappable battery
Yamaha are part of a consortium of motorcycle manufacturers who are currently developing a harmonised battery pack. It will become a standard swappable battery used by many different bikes and scooters in the future to make battery swapping stations more practical.
The 1kW 50.4V/19.2A lithium-ion battery pack used to power the NEO’s isn’t of the new type but it is a nice compact unit (measuring 225mm x 375 mm x 105 mm). It weighs 8kg and is secured under the seat using a neat, well-designed clamp. The battery can be lifted out easily and has a carrying handle as well as LED status lights to let you know how much charge it has (handy for home charging). It can of course also be charged in-situ and you can piggyback a second extra battery onto it to almost double the scooter’s range.
Extra battery
That extra battery will set you back a not insubstantial £980 but if you’re going to be doing quite a bit of nipping around (or more likely using it for delivery work) it’s well worth having because the standard range for the single battery is just 37km, that’s just less than 22 miles. I’d suggest adding the extra battery on to your finance to take the sting out a bit. Recharging takes 6-8 hours per battery.
37-litres of storage space
The compact nature of the battery means that even with two batteries in place, as fitted to all the test bikes there was still ample storage space beneath the seat. 37 litres to be precise. That’s big enough for an open-faced lid and was almost big enough to swallow my full-faced Arai. Unlike the NIU MQI GT we tested a few weeks ago, that one just about had enough storage space for a medium-sliced sandwich with the crusts cut off.
The connected generation
The target audience for the NEO’s is anybody from a teenager upwards. You’re likely to want something that’s easy to ride, looks good and doesn’t cost a fortune to run. You probably don’t want to ride an illegal stand-up eScooter and risk having it confiscated, so a ‘proper’ electric scooter is on your wish list. You’ll probably want something which will last you a good few years as well. Luckily you’ve come to the right place. You’ll love the modern styling and simplicity of this electric twist and go. If you’re a nervous beginner or recent personal transport swapper there’s no better place for you to start your two-wheeled journey. This Yamaha is just so easy to ride, as we were about to find out.
Licensing
If you’re a youngster just getting your first wheels you’ll need to be 16 or over to ride the NEO’s in the UK (14 in the rest of Europe) and have passed a CBT.
Car licence?
If you passed your car test before Feb 1st 2001 you can ride a 50cc moped (or equivalent) without any further training. If you took your car test after Feb 1st 2001 you’ll need a CBT to ride a moped or 125cc.
MyRide app
Before starting the test ride I downloaded the dedicated Yamaha MyRide app and paired my scooter. The app shows distance, altitude, speed and battery percentage remaining (on one or both batteries). It can also locate your scooter and show the route you’ve ridden. Of course it links to your phone and shows if you’ve had a text message through the scooter’s compact digital dash, or alerts you to a call. There’s an official Yamaha Neo’s accessory that allows your phone to be securely mounted just above the clocks and has a dedicated USB for you to charge your phone.
Other accessories include an apron, top box and the additional battery.
White is the new black
I chose to ride a white NEO’s for the day and I imagine 90% of owners will choose white as well. The scooter just really stands out in this colour. The details get lost on the black version too much for my liking, a contrasting white stripe would help it to pop a bit but not all riders like to stand out.
Part of the detailing includes a rubber strip around the edges of the legshields to help prevent parking scuffs. There are also rubber foot mats to dull any vibration, not that I noticed any.
Keyless
Like most of the latest scooters, the Yamaha comes with a keyless ignition, operated with a remote fob so you can simply unlock/lock the scooter and open the seat when you’re in close proximity. You get a moveable dial on the scooter itself to allow you to turn it off/on and lock it rather than having a key.
Ready to ride
Time to fire this baby up at last. Ok, there’s not much fire going on below the bodywork but you know what I mean. Turn the dial on, press the start button and the scooter is ready. I know it’s ready because there’s a green light on the dash that just told me. There are two riding modes to choose from, standard and eco. It starts in standard and that’s where it’s likely to stay. Eco drops the power and top speed but only gives around 1.5 km extra range so, to be honest, it’s not really worth using.
Throttle control
Once ‘armed’ it really is as simple as twisting your right hand and going. Even though it sounds simple at this point, this is where most other electric scooter manufacturers get things wrong.
Yamaha have got this very right. They’ve put some time and effort into making the throttle response flawless and controllable. You can ride this scooter with the finesse of a petrol scooter and that makes a big difference to me and will to the end customer. Well done to the Yamaha technicians who realised that electric scooters can and should be easy to control by twisting your wrist, rather than them being on/off jerky as you pull away or whilst trying to control the scooter at very low speeds.
Torque monster
Talking of pulling away, like all electric vehicles this one makes its power in a linear fashion and from very low revs. In fact, peak torque (136 Nm) is made at just 50 rpm. For those of you who don’t know, torque is the force that causes an object to move and when peak torque comes in so early it means you could climb a tree on this thing at about 5mph (although I wouldn’t advise it). This leads to instant and impressive acceleration on the road, the kind of acceleration you just don’t get with a modern gutless 50cc petrol scooter.
This torque is good, it means you can ride this scooter confidently in the city knowing that although the top speed is limited to 30mph you still have the ability to get a move on, whether you’re overtaking, or in our case fighting for survival against Amsterdam’s population of myopic cyclists who attack from all angles.
Well-balanced
The NEO’s feels very neutral and well-balanced, it’s not at all heavy (weighing in at just 98kg). That light feel and ease of use make it a great city scooter. This thing is nimble on its 13” wheels making it a doddle to slice through traffic, avoid other road users, turn around on a sixpence and generally ride around town like you own it. You really can’t beat a good scooter for practicality in a city.
Super quiet
One thing you quickly notice with the NEO’s is that it feels very well put together, there’s no rattling of bodywork or anything else for that matter. In fact, it’s an all-over super silent scooter when stood still, or on the move. That’s helped by the Maxxis MA-EVF tyres, designed exclusively for Yamaha to have less rolling resistance and ride quietly on the road. The Neo’s produces just 55db at 30mph, that’s quieter than people chatting amongst themselves. Whilst riding you can hear every word anybody around you says. It meant we could all chat at a standstill, or whilst riding and the banter filtering down from the front of our riding group would ordinarily be lost to the engine and road noise.
Big on fun
Riding through the winding streets, along the side of canals and even onto a ferry taking us across the shipping canal to the north of the city, our gang of moped boys and girls were able to have some fun and that’s what riding is all about. Fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing around on a superbike, or you’re commuting to work on an electric moped and trying to beat your personal best before you park it at the office. The Yamaha NEO’s lifts the once almost dead 50cc class and puts it well and truly back on the podium. This is a scooter enforced to 30mph (48kmh) but it still feels big on ability. You really can enjoy riding this little beauty and as long as you’re not planning to ride long distance it’ll get you there and back in style.
Going the distance
Talking of distances, during our test ride the first battery swapped over to the second at 27kms, that’s 16.7miles (it automatically swaps when it gets below a certain threshold) and that’s not a lot of running around. That’s where the only compromise comes in on this scooter. Range. With the second battery you’re almost doubling it according to Yamaha but even so, that’s still only around 33 miles of playtime.
Take a petrol 50cc like the Aprilia SXR 50 with its 7-litre tank and 95mpg fuel economy and you could probably ride it for a fortnight before the need to fill it up. With a single battery on the NEO’s you’re probably going to be charging it every day or two. Although as somebody pointed out, most people charge their phone every day and don’t moan about that.
If you’ve got a garage/shed with power it’s not a problem, you can just park it up and plug it in without any hassle. If not it might get on your nerves to lug the fairly compact battery/batteries inside to charge them so often and you’re not likely to do it on your bedside table. I can see why Yamaha have designed smaller batteries, it makes the scooter more practical from an underseat storage point of view and means the battery only weighs 8kg so isn’t too heavy to lift out and carry. It gives owners the option to have an affordable three-grand moped, or upgrade and get a longer-range four-grand twin battery version. Not everybody needs that extra range but I’d imagine most teenagers will be riding more than 16 miles a day if they’re anything like me and my friends a ‘couple’ of years ago when we were first on the road. Add in some hills to your local area and you’d probably reduce that range even further.
Aside from that small but quite significant point, I really thought the NEO’s was a fantastic little scooter. It’s got everything you need on a moped and a bit more besides. The main thing for me though was that it rides like an ‘ordinary’ scooter and in the world of eScooters that’s an unusual thing.
Messing about on mopeds
As I was blasting silently around the busy streets of Amsterdam I came to the conclusion that the NEO’s has the capability of bringing the moped class back to popularity. Four-stroke fifties killed it in my opinion. There was no buzz from riding something that could be out-accelerated by a cyclist. Yet the moped class is way more accessible to older car licence holders, meaning they don’t have to take a CBT to ride one. Because the NEO’s feels quicker and has that power on tap you can really ride it and enjoy it. Our mixture of middle-aged bike journos had a proper laugh riding these. I can imagine a few teenagers having the time of their life gaining their long-awaited freedom on these new Yamahas.
For once in my life I’d choose an electric moped over any conventional one currently on the market.
The new Neo’s will be available from July, although there may be a few arriving before then. If you’ve been considering a switch to two wheels and haven’t considered an electric moped as an option I suggest you give one a try. You won’t be disappointed I promise.
Give your local Yamaha dealer a visit and put your name down on one now.
Words: Iggy
Photos and video: Yamaha
Video edit (video to follow soon): Iggy
Yamaha Neos tech spec
Motor: Yamaha hub-mounted brushless Integrated Power Unit (YIPU)
Battery: Removable 1kWh 50.5V/19.2A lithium-ion (weight 8kg)
Charge time: Eight hours with standard charger
Range: 37km measured using WMTC Class 1 in STD mode
Controller: Lightweight swinging arm with built-in Motor Control Unit (MCU)
Storage: 27-litres underseat space
Wheels: 13″ cast alloy wheels
Tyres: Low resistance Maxxis tyres 120 front/130 rear
Suspension: KYB front forks, single rear shock
Brakes: Front disc, rear drum
Lighting: LED
Instruments: LCD instrument panel
Connectivity: MyRide smartphone app
Seat height: 795 mm
Weight: 98kg with battery
Availability: July
Price: £3099
