I am whirring uphill in virtual silence on a machine that is at the cutting edge of electric vehicle technology – with the only noticeable sound the occasional staccato parp of a car horn as one of Rome’s less patient drivers decides I’m in his way.

But my near-noiseless progress on Piaggio’s MP3 Hybrid arguably warrants a full Roman fanfare, for this is the world’s first hybrid scooter. The MP3 combines a petrol engine with an electric motor to give improved fuel consumption, reduced emissions and the ability to run as a zero-emission, electric-only vehicle for short distances.

Motorcycles and scooters have always been able to claim very respectable green credentials. Their construction uses fewer raw materials than cars. They take up less road space. Their traffic-dodging abilities mean they spend little time stationary with their engines idling. And in terms of fuel consumption, the smaller-capacity machines are a lot less thirsty.

But weather and safety concerns have largely left motorcycles and scooters out in the transport policy cold. The MP3 Hybrid, which is based on a tilting three-wheel scooter model that has proved very popular with customers, aims to vanquish many of those reservations when it goes on sale in the UK early next month.

There are good reasons why there has not yet been a two-wheel hybrid to match cars such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight – crucially that the batteries which make those cars possible have been hugely heavy and bulky. But manufacturers have not been idling. Leo Francesco Mercanti, Piaggio senior vice-president for product development and racing, told me in Rome that work on the Hybrid was started some four years ago and uses technology that has cost “close to €10m to develop”. Even for a manufacturer which produced 650,000 motorcycles and scooters last year, that is a hefty sum.

But it’s an investment in the future, and other big names in the two-wheeler field have said they will bring hybrids to market next year. Battery technology, meanwhile, has advanced. Piaggio’s scooter uses lithium-ion batteries – the same as in mobile phones. You can charge them by plugging the scooter into the mains; a full charge takes three hours.

Safety fears have been addressed by the three-wheeler layout, which is no wider than a conventional scooter and gives nothing away in agility or lean angle. But the extra front wheel provides better grip, especially under braking and on wet roads. Insulation from rain and cold is available in the form of higher screens and a heater.

On the bumpy and battered streets of Rome, the increased security of the third wheel was invaluable. It also meant I had more attention to spare for the button used to switch between riding modes: one uses both petrol and electric motors to give maximum zip, a second uses the electric motor as a generator to charge the battery, and a third uses the electric motor only. There is a fourth, too, but it is simply the electric motor running backwards to provide a very slow reverse.

Despite the engine displacing just 124cc and the scooter weighing a rather portly 240kg, acceleration from the engine alone is respectable. With the electric motor joining the party, acceleration is as brisk as the non-hybrid 250cc MP3.

The electric-only mode, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. Speed is governed down to 30kph – which means that the range on a fully charged battery is a very respectable 20km. But that’s not really enough to spar with traffic in any urban area I know, whether Rome or Rotherham. It is, however, designed to persuade authorities to allow the scooter to be driven in areas where conventional vehicles are banned. (Another concession to pedestrians is a meek second horn for warning of my silent approach.)

Starting up the petrol engine once outside a pedestrian zone – or when I tired of being passed by cyclists – required a deft touch if it was to be accomplished without stopping, but using the control that stops the bike tilting when stationary was effortless. I imagine I would eventually get bored of coming to a stop, flicking the switch and keeping my feet on the running boards, but the child in me has so far found this endlessly amusing.

The electronics that apportion load between the engine and the electric motor are similarly sophisticated. There is no mechanical connection between the throttle and the engines, and this system works as seamlessly as on the Yamaha R6 sportsbike and the Dassault Falcon 7X executive jet – the last two fly-by-wire machines I have piloted. Braking also puts juice back into the battery.

All this means that the MP3 Hybrid can, according to Piaggio, give fuel economy figures of 60km per litre, assuming it is ridden two-thirds of the time in hybrid mode and one-third as a pure electric machine. That compares with about 26km per litre for the conventional 125cc MP3 – and the hybrid’s CO2 emissions are less than half of its less-sophisticated sibling. By contrast, Toyota claims 25.6km per litre for its Prius hybrid car.

Of course, Piaggio owners can also plug in their vehicles when they stop, and boost their green smugness still further.

But all this comes at a price – the MP3 Hybrid costs nearly 50 per cent more the very capable 400cc non-hybrid MP3. Even though you need not worry about the replacement cost of the battery – Piaggio technicians estimates its life at 50,000km, or five years, by which time the cost should have fallen enormously – that is a high price to pay for helping to save the planet.

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The details

A bright spark

How much
£7,000 to £8,000

How fast
About 100kph

How thirsty
Up to 60km per litre, assuming 65 per cent hybrid and 35 per cent electric operation

How green
40g CO2/km, under the same 65/35 split

Also consider
Honda and Yamaha hybrids, expected next year; Zero S all-electric road bike, due out soon: 90kph top speed, about £8,000