Piaggio and Foton Motor extends collaboration to electric light commercial vehicles

BEIJING: Piaggio and Foton Motor will jointly develop a new range of electrically powered Porter vehicles.

This will extend the Piaggio range of commercial vehicles with two new four-wheel electric variants, designed to meet the specific needs of intra-city mobility, with a combination of compact dimensions and a payload capacity of at least one tonne, particularly high for this class of vehicle.

The new range of electric Porter models will be manufactured in Italy, in the Piaggio Group's Pontedera factory.

Marketing will begin by the end of 2024 in the main European countries through a network of dealers who specialise in sale and support services for commercial vehicles.

In a statement, Piaggio said the new electric Porter vehicles will feature innovative cybersecurity solutions and active and passive vehicle safety systems, including advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).

The new features will also be made available on the Porter combustion models.

The deal for the collaboration was signed in Beijing by Piaggio Group CEO Michele Colaninno and Foton Motor Group vice president Ma Rentao.

Piaggio Group chairman Matteo Colaninno also met Chang Rui, chairman of Foton Motor Group, in Beijing.

The deal extends the collaboration between the Italian and Chinese automakers, which had led to the introduction in 2021 of the first city truck, the new Porter NP6, a bi-fuel model offering compact dimensions and outstanding capacity, which has been warmly received on the European market.