A Real Electric Commuter
Mar 16th, 2009 by Leo
The last post about the electric motorcycle got me thinking…an electric motorcycle like this one could work in a place like NY. But there are two big problems… One is price: These go for $11,995 or $14,995 (for the premium version with carbon fiber extras). The second problem is if you live in an apartment, you don’t have any place to plug it in at night. Third, the lithium batteries will need to be replaced at some point, and they’re a big part of the cost of the bike. Also the batteries leave the biggest ecological footprint…although that should get better in the future.
On the plus side, it gets the energy equivalent of 276 miles per gallon. If you want to read more, here’s the link.
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Even though the performance spec doesn’t match the “looks” (I’d want an EV scooter to have HP and torque specs like this), IMO, I’m all for the EV evolution. It’s expensive (for most), too slow (for most) and has charging hurdles when it comes to apartment dwellers. All that said, it’s still exciting to see things developing and coming to fruition. Like anything else, we’ll see leaps and bounds of improvements as time goes by, and probably faster than we think.
When it’s got 3x’s the horsepower, with a similar range and under $10k, I’d be willing to take the plunge. Plus, there’s an additional 10 percent tax credit (up to $2,500) that comes with the purchase of an electric motorcycle. That’s just for 2009, but I’d be willing to bet that credit will continue beyond this year.
What about miles per dollar? Right now I get 160 mpg, which is 100 mp$ if gas is at $1.60. I imagine this thing is way cheeper.