Italy is attempting to circumvent European Union emissions regulations by having the petrol-powered Vespa scooter recognised as a symbol of “national cultural heritage”.
If the status is granted, it would mean that the two-wheeler would no longer be subject to sales restrictions due to its extremely high exhaust emissions, Italian newspapers Corriere della Sera and Il Giornale reported.
A bill from the right-wing ruling Lega party led by Transport Minister Matteo Salvini has been submitted to parliament in Rome.
Experts called the move strange, since the Vespa electric scooter comes in several versions, which retain the same rounded shapes and style as the original ICE model.
Italy’s move echoes voices within the EU that want to delay a planned ban on the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines until after a 2035 deadline. Germany wants to do the same for cars running on synthetic fuels.
“Given its symbolic value and exceptional production quality, but also for its historical, artistic and cultural value,” the Vespa Piaggio motorcycle, patented in 1946, should be recognized as “national cultural heritage,” said the bill, which is actively supported by Salvini.
“Including the Vespa in the list of vehicles of national interest in order to protect it from any form of traffic restriction is a common sense proposal that we have actively supported. With it we want to protect a heritage, a myth and an Italian symbol on two wheels that is known and admired all over the world,” Salvini said in a letter.
Savlini fears that the scooter will end up on the shelves.
Salvini said the Vespa should “drive freely” regardless of traffic restrictions related to polluting emissions. Otherwise, the Vespa, with its petrol engine, will be “crushed under the axe of the European ‘Green Deal'”.
The Vespa is known worldwide and was powered for years by a smelly two-stroke engine that burned a climate-unfriendly mixture of gasoline and oil. Modern versions use much cleaner four-stroke engines with electronic ignition.
