Yamaha Unveils New Tricity 300 Urban Mobility Scooter In Tokyo

By Janaki Jitchotvisut, RideApart

Leaning multi-wheel in a slightly larger city-centric scooter.

Among other reveals at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show, Yamaha took the stage to unveil its new Tricity 300 three-wheeled Urban Mobility Scooter. If you’ll recall, the company filed patents for this design with EUIPO back in April 2019. Now that it’s a real production vehicle that’s presumably headed to showroom floors, we have some questions.

Powered by Yamaha’s BLUE CORE 300cc liquid-cooled four-stroke engine, it uses the same Leaning Multi-Wheel technology seen in the Yamaha Niken. Besides being bigger and more powerful than the existing Tricity 125 and 150, one of Yamaha’s big selling points for the 300 is that car drivers can still operate it with a regular car license in many countries. So, it’s once again fudging the line between what constitutes a bike and what constitutes a car.

Here’s a question I have, though. In the promotional video above, as well as in this photo gallery, the Tricity 300 looks absolutely humongous. Unlike the Niken, it looks as though it stands upright under its own power, without the need for the rider to balance it. In that respect, it’s more like what we traditionally think of as a trike. So, it might not matter all that much most of the time.

Still, Yamaha’s own promotional materials claim that it is “lightest in class.” Firstly, what else is in that class? The Piaggio MP3? Somehow, that doesn’t seem quite right, so I’d be curious to see what other three-wheelers were considered in this equation.

Secondly, when the guy in the promotional shots is riding it by himself, it looks like he’s a little kid riding a toy tank into battle. Adding his passenger doesn’t do much to make the thing look any less huge. If those are average-sized humans, just how heavy is this bike … er, Urban Mobility Scooter? Presumably, it’s light compared to the cars some drivers might also drive when they’re not driving this? Help me out here, Yamaha.

Also, I’m no graphic designer, but that textual layout is … questionable. What do you think?

In any case, look for more about the Tricity 300 as it makes its way to Europe for EICMA 2019.