The Italian supercar brand Lamborghini’s founding family has joined hands with South Korean electric vehicle maker GPCC Korea Co. to venture into the electric scooter business.

GPCC Korea, together with Ferruccio Lamborghini who is the grandson of the luxury car founder, unveiled Iso Moto Ferruccio Lamborghini edition - a special edition model jointly developed by the two parties over the past two years - at a press event in Seoul on Tuesday.

Ferruccio Lamborghini acknowledged Korea’s advanced technology in automobiles and ICT and said the companies plan to expand their scooter lineup and start making small electric cars in the future.

The Iso Motor scooter can travel up to 65 kilometers (40 miles) on a single charge and run at a maximum speed of 80 kilometers per hour. It can be charged at home with a 220-voltage plug and takes about three and a half hours to fully charge.

Electric scooters cost 95 percent less to drive than their gas-powered peers, said Brian Park, chief executive of GPCC Korea.

The scooter is connected to a smartphone app that will allow its driver to control a scooter remotely, prevent theft and track mileage.

In Korea, a vehicle needs to have a powerful motor to run in the mountainous terrain and a battery that can withstand the country’s four distinct seasons, explained Park. He said GPCC Korea aims to roll out its electric scooters within the year and sell 500 units locally and 20,000 worldwide by next year. The company plans to make a foray into Japan, Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

In the electric scooter market projected to grow by 10 million units annually, GPCC Korea said it would strive to reach its sales target of 64,000 scooters by 2021.

Lamborghini will hold a stake in the Korean company, offer brand licensing rights and share its automotive technologies while GPCC manufactures scooters at its plants in Pyeongtaek, Korea and China. Ferruccio Lamborghini, a former motorcycle racer, would serve as the chief brand officer and be involved in developing new models, the Korean company said.

The scooter lineup has no association with the luxury car brand that bears the same name as Lamborghini cars that are now under German automaker Audi.

GPCC Korea was formerly a research and development unit of electric vehicles under Kyoden Co., Japan’s largest printed circuit board maker, before spinning off to become an independent company in 2012.

The press event on Tuesday gained wide attention from dealers in Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and India. An earlier event held in Shenzhen, China in September also garnered over 200 attendees.

By Song Min-geun and Kim Hyo-jin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]