From Crain's Cleveland Business, a very cool story about a local industry leader taking the lead in alternative energy vehicles - an electric scooter, with many key components manufactured by NEO's Parker Hannifin.

If you visit their website and check out the product brochure you'll see this product is hot. May be a while before we see any in the streets of Cleveland... but perhaps we can convince Parker & Vectrix to make us one of the first communities for USA distribution (how about putting an assembly line here, as well?!?)... beginning in 1996... read on, in Crain's:

Parker invests in scooter maker

tjackson [at] crain [dot] com

Parker
Hannifin Corp. has made an equity investment in Vectrix Corp., a
Newport, R.I., company that will begin selling a fast, nonpolluting
electric scooter next year.

Terms of the investment weren’t disclosed. Engineers from
Parker have been working with Vectrix for more than two years. Parker
makes the electric motor and electronic controls for the bike along
with components for a fuel cell for a planned electric/fuel cell hybrid
model, said Jim Cartwright, a company spokesman.

Vectrix, formed in 1996, says it will begin selling its
electric scooters next year in England and Italy, followed by launches
in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. The scooter has a top
speed of 62 mph and a range of 68 miles. The fuel cell hybrid model,
expected in 2006, will have a longer range.
Europe is expected to be a big market for the scooters, Mr. Cartwright said.

“The streets are narrow, congested and there’s no place to park
when you get there,� he said. In addition, he said internal combustion
engines are banned in parts of London.