The project began about a year ago and the moped is already in mass production.

"About a year and a half ago, I was looking for a new challenge and heard that Toni Rifelj is looking for a new investor to revive his brainchild. We purchased the licence and began production," company director Boštjan Vidovič told the STA yesterday.

The Master X and Master P models will be available in Slovenia, while the electric Tori Amper will be sold abroad.

Vidovič said the market had responded very well, especially Hungary, Ukraine and ex-Yugoslav countries. Macedonia's postal service was one of the first buyers of the new moped series, having ordered 120 motorbikes.

He added that the first mopeds would be sold in the first half of August.

The company is planning to produce at least 2,000 vehicles next year and another 5,000 in 2018. A smaller model with automatic transmission, targeted at younger drivers, is also being developed.

The company's further plans are aimed at developing electrical mopeds, which opens the possibility of collaborating with various Slovenian faculties, designers and developers.

Toni Rifelj, the original constructor of the Tori moped, is in charge of development, while various Slovenian companies supply components for the vehicle.

Rifelj launched the first Tori mopeds in 1984, but the production was phased out in 2005. Altogether, he sold around 35,000 mopeds in former Yugoslav republics, around Europe and the US.