Italian police confiscated Kaitong’s knockoff of the Piaggio MP3 at the EICMA show in Milan.
If that’s a thing… that… can be done, it’s surprising it doesn’t happen more at motorcycle trade shows. Surely it wasn’t a good idea to show up on Italian soil during the financial crisis on the week the Prime Minister resigns (incidentally, Berlusconi was slated to speak at EICMA but cancelled), and display a knockoff of one of Italy’s proudest exports. But one would hope authorities would afford the same attention to other imitators, too.
In other MP3-ish news, Vectrix is promising their 3-wheeler for 2012.
Via Scooterism.
I thought this story was a bit weird. I had to wonder how much of a copy it was compared to Peugeot’s concept 3-wheeler.
Vectrix had a 3-wheeler several years ago which (IIRC) licensed the Piaggio design. I saw it at IMS maybe 4 or 5 years ago! Regardless, at the time, projected cost was $16K. They later dropped it to $12K. Still never came to market, which is probably a good thing. R&D on that model was reportedly a big contributor to their bankruptcy.
Some of those Kraptong’s with 3 wheels were sold this summer in Florida and some how floated by on Piaggio’s DOT approval for the MP3. Some legal steps were taken but it didn’t get to far looks like the case just ended in Sept. I will see if I can find out some more about it…