As electric technology develops, there’s a huge race to tap into the market for small electric vehicles for inner city commutes. Car firms such as Ford, Seat and Bugatti are running their own mobility firms, and putting their name to electric mopeds and scooters. And they're taking on a host of electric start-ups developing their own vehicles.
One of those bold newcomers making plenty of noise is Silence, a UK based electric scooter manufacturer who produce a range of electric, vespa-like scooters.They’re among the best you’ll find on sale today - so much so that Seat turned to Silence to help make its Mo electric moped.
We spoke to John Edwards, co-founder and director of Silence UK, about how his firm is developing true electric alternatives to petrol powered motorbikes.
The ever-growing electric scooter market
Edwards says that the electric scooter market is growing dramatically, with both businesses and consumers turning to small electric vehicles for inner city journeys.
The Silence UK co-founder explained that after fully launching in June of last year, they had seen growth in the need for electric scooters for last mile deliveries, but also in the consumer market.
“I think if you look at the data, it's growing 150% year on year, and that rate is growing every month,” he says. “As a business, we want Silence to be the Tesla of the bike market. It’s a 10-year-old business that is 100% focused on all things electric and urban mobility.”
“We are still finding our way but there is definitely a business market and a consumer market for us. Zero emissions zones are increasing and businesses are going to need to have an efficient way of delivering last-mile, and we think our bike is a very good tool for the job.”
Edwards added that the Silence electric scooter range has proved popular with customers opting for their machine as it offers an efficient alternative to petrol powered vehicles.
The importance of education
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Edwards and his team are clearly focussed on delivering a high-quality product that is both easy to use and enjoyable to ride, while meeting the requirements of both consumers and businesses. 
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I'd prefer to see these on the road than those hideous Honda PCX petrol scooters that many delivery drivers use. The Honda's look like upside down plastic wheelbarrows and sound like lawnmowers. They are truly the ugliest vehicles on the road and the antithesis of something cool like a Triumph motorcycle which is aspirational and visually appealing. I think there's definitely a place for these electric scooters. Hopefully we'll see more of these and fewer motorised Honda wheelbarrows.
Show a bit of patience, Vespa have only been going since 1946!
Quite worrying that a motoring journalist can't spell Vespa