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What If The Future Is Electric?
Blog Date - 01 October 2013
Environment Environment Environment...that's all we ever hear these days. Whether you're a planet friendly hippy or weekend power ranger the rising cost of fuel is providing the motivation for the development and uptake of electric vehicles. There are a handful of electric cars for sale now and there's a growing number of electric motorcycle manufacturers emerging too.
The best known player the electric motorcycle market that I am aware of is Zero Motorcycles. Coming from America, the land of 7 litre V8 engines and relatively cheap petrol, a serious company offering serious green motorcycles comes as something of a surprise. I've read and watched a handful of reviews and they are highly respected. Their marketing blurb takes great pains to emphasise their technical wizardry particularly regarding charging and battery life. Why? Because that's where the issues with electric motorcycles lie.
It takes around 3 or 4 minutes to "charge" a petrol motorcycle. It's simply a case of pull into the petrol station, fill up, pay...a lot...and ride away. A typical tank will cover 150 miles, my 125 will cover 300 miles on one "charge". An electric machine will take at least an hour to charge, probably more, and the charge will last maybe 50 or 100 miles. To be fair this is more than enough for the typical commuter but if you feel like a day out blasting the countryside with your mates it's not enough. Presently there's nowhere to charge up anyhow. If, more likely when, some boffin comes up with a solution then I think electric vehicles, including motorcycles, will take off. I suspect the solution will be standardised batteries available for exchange, so instead of filling up with petrol you'll swap your battery for a fully charged one.
Whatever the solution to rapid refilling or charging, will electric motorcycles spoil motorcycling? It will certainly change it. No more sitting at the lights revving your motor in anticipation of the forthcoming drag race from green. No more endless conversations about the merits and issues of loud pipes. No more oil changes every few thousand miles. Also possibly no more flat spots to meet emission regulations. There are pros and cons.
I am trying to imagine a scene from an American movie that involves cliché bikers like the Black Widows from Every Which Way But Loose. Typically 20 or 30 Harleys with loud pipes roar and deafen their way into some dusty parking lot, scattering terrified locals into their houses. Imagine that scene now with almost silent electric bikes, it somehow loses impact. You might look like a million dollars on your Ducati super duper hyper whatnot but without those Termigoni's booming your arrival then no-one is going to notice. The noise of an engine is an evocative thing.
If the charge thing is sorted out then performance will probably not be an issue. The Electric "TT Zero" bikes are catching up rapidly with the traditional bikes and with more stored "electricity" there's no reason why they should not out-perform them. There'd be little need to mercilessly hunt out the sweet power spot either, electric motors have flat torque curves and power output. Imagine that, grunt everywhere and anywhere in the revs.
Initially it seemed as though we'd lose the clutch and gears. For many this is another involving and essential part of the ride. An electric motor can run you from 0 to 100mph without a single gear at all. But a recent development suggests that while for commuter bikes this would be welcome and ideal there may be advantages in having gears for some performance e-bikes. I'm interested how I will feel either way because sometimes I want to be lazy and other times I love being in full control.
Youtube video review of an E-Bike
For me personally change is inevitable and often welcome. I do love my petrol engines with their character and noise and flaws. Yet I look forward to future developments. Of simple motors with only a few moving parts. Of computerised options to suit my mood for the day. Of refuelling that doesn't break the bank and can be done at home. I think the future will be different. It won't be necessarily be any better but I doubt it will be any worse.
Reader's Comments
john de ville said :-
Its all well and good that these "environmentalists" keep banging on about electric this and electric that..................But there is a backfire to all this. Unless the power stations can be all nuclear then the said power stations will still have to burn copious amounts of fossil fuel to provide the electric to recharge these bikes and cars.
Thats my rant over.
Regarding your take on the engine noise and exhaust noise, i do agree that it wont be the same unless there is a computerised method of some description that emulates the sound with a powerful amp and speakers.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
John...yep the energy has to come from somewhere. The idea is that it's easier to control the emissions from a power station rather than millions of cars/bikes. Also petrol engines are actually heaters that coincidentally produce movement making them incredibly inefficient.
As for the noise. Why then chose an "engine" noise at all? Why not have your favourite band, your mother-in-law giving you a ticking off or the noise of one hand clapping?
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Daffyd said :-
In the urban areas like Cardiff I reckon the electric bikes will be great. No noise for the night. No pollutants. Easy to look after. It will be the long journeys that will be an issue. Charges take a long time and I can't wait five hours for a charge when I'm going to London for the day. This is what will need fixing.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi Daffyd
I still think the solution for long distance trips will be battery exchange stations. You'd pull in and somehow swap the battery for a charged one. This would need standardised batteries and some co-operation between manufacturers and that might be difficult!
Still, I quite fancy the idea of an electric motorcycle.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Alan said :-
A year or so ago I was working in Guangzhou in China and the place was full of electric scooters. These are about the same size as a Lambretta, and could do about 45 kph carrying about 26 stone of wife and myself.They recharged in about 12 hours or so. Though most had a lot more onboard, Mum, Dad, 3 kids or one with 5 adolescents onboard. The price was around £300, no license, no road tax, no helmet, no insurance. No road sense. I was glad I wasn't driving an actual car over there as they were driving across the traffic, against the traffic, on the pavement, total chaos. But great things to play with and handy for seeing local sights and getting the shopping, range was around 60 Km at full blast, not fantastic but more than enough to potter around the place and recharge every few days. The one I had belonged to a colleague and was about 3 years old and still going strong.
31/10/2016 15:14:49 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Almost all journeys are less than 30 miles (50km) I reckon. I could use an electric scoot to get to work (25 miles), charge the bike at work then get home just fine. As Daffyd pointed out it's just those occasional long trips that are the problem.
I've seen videos and programs of crazy traffic in China, India and other eastern countries and it dumbfounds me. I guess you just have to join the party and ride like the locals. I can't imagine their road safety figures are any good.
01/11/2016 09:09:32 UTC
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