Jump to content

Electric Motorcycles


ReconRat

Recommended Posts

Rather popular in other countries. There's about 17 million of them already.

And it's being projected that there will be 138 million electric motorcycles and scooters by 2017.

And how many in the USA? Not many so far...

Global Market for E-Scooters and E-Motorcycles to Surge, Report Says

138 Million Electric Motorcycles and Scooters to be on the Road Worldwide by 2017, Forecasts Pike Research

Electric motorcycles, scooters to top 138 million worldwide by 2017

Would you rock an eMotorcycle to commute to work? Or even for it's limited range rides? Would you if gasoline was $5 a gallon? $10? $20? What's it take to make it happen?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Continued R&D work on electric sportbikes is looking up, they're getting good power out of them so far - once they get further in development and are proven on the racetrack, they'll probably consider the consumer marketplace as long as the price range is comparable - til then, I'm sittin' tight

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With their current range, they're not a replacement for a gas motorcycle, in almost all cases, but rather a supplement. And this is the part about the current manufacturers in the U.S. that I don't understand. Brammo and Zero keep building motorcycles even though somewhere around 70% of buyers are not currently motorcyclists. Why aren't they building scooters? The way an electric motorcycle is used today is very much like a small scooter: economical urban transportation with limits (speed for a 50cc scooter, range for the electric bike) that is low maintenance (hyper-low in the electric case) and low in cost. It would seem to be an easier sell to make a more user friendly scooter style ride instead of the motorcycles that Zero and Brammo are building and are shunned by most riders.

I would love to have an electric motorcycle for short trips around town and no doubt will some day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A friend of mine has developed a few electric race bikes, and he's said the technology is basically archaic right now.

It's a double edged sword: To better develop, there needs to be more sales. For more sales, the bikes need to be better developed.

But I'd use one for around town, especially if the price was in the sub $3000 range for a new bike.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With Americas new push from Obama to explore alternative fuels the auto industry and I'm sure the motorcycle industry WILL eventually go hybrid or electric or bio or deisel yes deisel... Some manufacturers are having tremendous sucess with electric drive such as Lotus and Ford. BMW is having tremendous sucess with Deisel and Hydrogen. And of course Toyota. All manufacturers are experimenting with Alternative fuel because they know the future of oil is bleek.

Hybrids are growing in popularity every year and between the govts tax incentives to purchase cleaner more efficient vehicles and the cost of oil skyrocketing its enevitable.

Here in the US we have had it easy as far as oil prices and still do. Oil companies only accept the dollar as currency currently to purchase oil. That means that a country such as Japan must purchase american dollars to purchase oil. And the dollar is the only currency accepted world wide. This IS changing and the dollar is devalueing around the world. Why do you think Japan let's us borrow trillions of dollars? Because they know that the US dollar for now is king. Again this is changing and many countries are no longer accepting the dollar as currency. The oil companies are looking twards the pound or euro as new payment. When this happens fuel costs here will go as high as europe ( around 8.00 a gallon and higher ). Sorry for the economics lesson but alternative fuels are here to stay and WILL overtake gasoline. Motorcycles inevitably have to follow that path eventually.

Edited by Jamez
Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I've seen, a $3000 electric from off shore, would double to at least $6000 to be introduced into the US market. We have requirements that are expensive, apparently.

When GM phased out the EV-1, they cited lack of sales. On the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" (pretty even handed, and well done) the president of GM said "you can't charge more for a car that will do less."

The price point on all electric vehicles is too high in the US, and everyone involved seems to have admitted this fact at some point. The marxist/conspiracy theorist in me thinks something is amiss.

$3000 for a basic, around town electric bike is a good price. $6000 to $8000 for a car would work as well.

Seriously though, does anyone want to help build one with me?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seriously though, does anyone want to help build one with me?

okey dokey.. I need 2777.7 of these to start with, at one buck each for an equivilent 40 hp bike that will run for an hour maybe...

wkGBW7sZJ1fKKW2NQSMd7EfUVBgstd0JxxtA4qc8zSVy407fVXx8t2RTYsLHl2dEHeQgrwoNa9xFKHQZxSIzV9uFvBRgWx0KXqVcblKakLjUXEOJbFzPcWnDx2Ia6ZBnTL-volg-TqmK

edit: or 555 of this Hoover vacuum cleaner 18v lithium at 45 bucks each

315GfOaz3CL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

electric isn't cheap to build...

I really think a hybrid is the way to go, with a very small gas engine and alternator/generator to supplement the batteries.

Edited by ReconRat
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Would you rock an eMotorcycle to commute to work? Or even for it's limited range rides? Would you if gasoline was $5 a gallon? $10? $20? What's it take to make it happen?

From the e-bikes I've read about the are limited to 50 miles. So I'd have to wait till they can at least make 100 miles as even the closest town and back is over 40 miles for me.

When they do get the distance up I'd love one and would even buy a bigger wind turbine so it could be charged off the grid and with no emissions either of the pipes. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

okey dokey.. I need 2777.7 of these to start with, at one buck each for an equivilent 40 hp bike that will run for an hour maybe...

wkGBW7sZJ1fKKW2NQSMd7EfUVBgstd0JxxtA4qc8zSVy407fVXx8t2RTYsLHl2dEHeQgrwoNa9xFKHQZxSIzV9uFvBRgWx0KXqVcblKakLjUXEOJbFzPcWnDx2Ia6ZBnTL-volg-TqmK

edit: or 555 of this Hoover vacuum cleaner 18v lithium at 45 bucks each

315GfOaz3CL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

electric isn't cheap to build...

I really think a hybrid is the way to go, with a very small gas engine and alternator/generator to supplement the batteries.

Those are retail prices, if we had a connection to one of the factories in China, we could get those batteries on the cheap.

I agree with the hybrid, but its cost will still need to be around the $3000 to $4000 range.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Part of the problem with fully electric vehicles...or motorcycles I guess is the dangerous step up voltages they produce. I do occasionally work on hybrid vehicles and I had to get certified in order to be allowed to go near them.

Another huge factor is weight. Lithium ion is a newer rapid growing technology but batteries are still very heavy especially when stacked to achieve large voltage outputs.

Ill personally build a dark matter motorcycle as soon as they get that damn Hathron Collider all figured out. ( brains of the forum giggling )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In case you're wondering...

Here's the state of the art, current industry standard for electric motorcycle power (maybe):

Turnkey Nanophosphate® Power Core Pack -110kW (In development) (this is equivalent to 147.45 horsepower)

110kW%20Power%20Pack.jpg

http://www.a123systems.com/Collateral/Images/English-US/110kW%20Power%20Pack.jpg

Constructed from individual Nanophosphate® AHR32113 Power Modules:

AHR32113%20Power%20Module.jpg

http://www.a123systems.com/Collateral/Images/English-US/AHR32113%20Power%20Module.jpg

A123 Systems - Products

A123 Systems Charges Into Motorcycle Racing - wired.com

A123 Systems plant in Livonia will power racing motorcycles - crainsdetroit.com

Edited by ReconRat
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a scientist in Israel who recently developed a high-powered battery based around silicone. Here.

Long lasting, easily recycled, apparently cheap to produce, and light weight.

I give it two months before it's suppressed, and quietly disappears.

Edited by dorifto240
pessimistic realism...
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's a scientist in Israel who recently developed a high-powered battery based around silicone. Here.

Long lasting, easily recycled, apparently cheap to produce, and light weight.

I give it two months before it's suppressed, and quietly disappears.

Very interesting. None rechargeable though, too bad. Nice long life for amp hours. I've watched quite a few mil-tech developments vanish lately. I'll talk about them, but not in public on the internet.

One that is worthy of discussion, is one I think might substitute for most of the batteries. A unique hybrid of electric propulsion, a few small batteries in the circuit, and a small constant speed turbine to produce power. MIT has made turbine generators running on kerosene, as small as a tiny stack or quarters. It could be scaled up to the size of a D-cell battery. What size would be necessary for that 1.4Kw output. That's what I want. A jet turbine powered hybrid electric motorcycle. It could be very light weight for a vehicle design.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...