Posted on 05/18/2023 4:33:11 AM PDT by FarCenter
Visit Asia's emerging megacities and you’ll quickly notice that scooters and motorbikes vastly outnumber cars. Before long these fleets of two-wheelers will become battery-powered, always-connected, semi-autonomous machines that offer an even more potent alternative to their four-wheeled rivals.
The reasons powered two-wheelers dominate nations such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam – with a combined population over 1.75 billion – are simple: cars are unaffordable on local wages, few urban homes have space to store them, and warm climates make two-wheelers viable year-round. Plus, many of them sell for less than the equivalent of $1,000 apiece.
The industry has decided many will soon be electric and it looks like drivers will buy them.
"Electrification of micromobility can be adopted at a faster pace than cars, mainly because the motor and batteries are much smaller," Fook Fah Yap, a director at Singapore's Nanyang Technical University's Transport Research Centre told The Register.
Evidence of the shift is not hard to find. Earlier this year Honda announced it will start to sell by ten battery powered bikes in 2025. Yamaha expects 90 percent of its sales will be electrified by 2050 and Toyota is expected to announce an electric two-wheeler this year.
That setup would work well in a tropical climate. No way would that work in winter weather.
My Lectric fat tire step thru ebike works great for $999 and military discount, easily goes 20 mph with just a twist of the throttle, or with pedal assist gets you 45 mi range
And it folds in half to fit in my Tundra to take camping
How fast will they go?
However, it is configured by default to only go up to about 20 MPH without pedaling, more if you pedal.
This is because there are three Classes of EBikes.
I can legally go on bike trails with a Class 2 bike in my state, not that I much care since I pretty much putt along at 10-15 MPH. But, if I pull the bike over, make a setting change, remove and reinsert the battery, I can make it a Class 3 eBike.
While these two wheel electrics won’t replace our cars, they are already having a growing effect in the US. Because I live in Florida, I see it every day.
I’ve got a fleet of 6 powered vehicles including a van, two cars, an Electra-Glide, a scooter and an electric bike. The scooter and bike have replaced about half of the miles I used to drive. When I need to go to the store to pick up a few things the scooter is the vehicle of choice. When I get to the store I always see electric bicycles parked outside.
The bikes charge on regular home power without anything special and have at least a thirty mile range. My scooter is 170cc, gets 89 mpg, and will go about 120 miles on a tank of fuel at 60 mph. It starts and stops better than the vast majority of cars on our suburban roads.
The electric bikes and the new crop of 4-stroke or electric scooters are already viable and cheap. While they won’t replace cars and trucks, they greatly reduce the miles driven in larger vehicles.
They don’t replace cars and trucks but they have their place. They are fun and cheap too.
Its works it Florida where it is sunny and warm year round
Not to mention it is a bike friendly state. Bike lanes and sidewalks everywhere.
Not so much the further north you go.
Its works in Florida where it is sunny and warm year round
Not to mention it is a bike friendly state. Bike lanes and sidewalks everywhere.
Not so much the further north you go.
Việt Nam already has crowds of electric bicycles with 25 to 50 kilometer ranges. Việt Nam also has as many gas scoots as ever and a lot of cars and bad traffic jams in the cities. The scoots, electric and gas never stop but the cars and trucks get tied up for hours. In the town where I stay there are a lot of yards with cars in them but mostly they just stay parked because it is easier to use the scoot. Prosperity is a happening thing in Việt Nam.
Near Birmingham, AL (almost as hot as San Antonio) our EV car works great for us. Part of that is because my wife is retired and I work home a lot (thus our solar power often charges the EV in the day for free on many days). Another thing, and this is a situation Birmingham might be better than San Antonio at: most of our road trips have good chargers in almost any direction we travel. However, if I lived in San Antonio I believe there's a large absence of chargers for road trips west of there, thus all of those trips would require driving our ICE pickup. That's okay for a few trips -- one reason we have only one EV is because the ICE picks up the slack for when EV's aren't good. However, if I was in a situation where the ICE pickup had to often pick up the slack for the EV, it wouldn't be worth getting the EV. Our purposes for the EV are: 1) to save a lot on gas by doing most of our driving in it, and 2) give us some level of energy independence at least in our local driving and first few hundred miles of a road trip (I can provide power for an EV with my own solar, but I can't drill and refine my own oil to make gas for my ICE). I do that in recognition of the Dims tightening the screws on energy more and more to control us, mainly for now with financial pressures by increasing energy costs. I wouldn't be surprised if soon the Dims require a mark of the beat type permission pass for energy.
So it depends entirely on one's demands for cars. In other words, like everything else, EV's are a good reason to push for free markets instead of government policies making decisions for us.
In Việt Nam you can get a decent no frills electric bicycle for under 500 dollars. In 2016 I was in the country for six weeks. When I arrived I noticed two or three electric bikes on my first day. By the time I left it seems every teenager had one and most of the ten year old kids. They had just come on the market the month before I got there.
OR Wyoming
“I had so much fun riding it, I got one for myself, and one for my wife. I purchased the Lectric Bikes...”
I live in Montana — not too far from downtown, just 4 miles — but up in the mountains enough to make bicycle riding objectionable.
My neighbor has one of these electric bicycles and makes it home up multiple hills very well.
I would definitely purchase one IF I wanted to do any more bicycling. I do not.
My first scooter in college had a 90 mile range at 115 MPG (real world, I did not want the tank to go empty). Really similar to an electric bicycle with an extra battery...
Have fun!
Great post there.
But margarine is not good for you. Butter is better.
And ghee is better than butter. (Ghee is clarified butter; it can be made at home from butter.)
Except in beach towns where finding a parking spot can be very difficult in the summer months.
My son used to live walking distance to the nicest beach in NH(Jenness). Many of the locals that lived more than walking distance from the beach had scooters to go back and forth to the beach or popular ocean front restaurants. I could see these battery operated bikes becoming popular for that.
I would consider one IF I was not worried about the battery burning my house down.
I do not even like charging the big battery for my Stihl hedge trimmer and chainsaw.
As a fun toy, sure.
But I think their basic idea is “less gas-powered cars on the road”. So this isn’t about a quick trip to the beach. This about a 1 hour commute to work every day, including January. I don’t want a two-wheel EV for that. So I need to keep my gas-powered car. So their agenda is not advancing. I may buy the toy as well, but it won’t get daily use. My car will.
The electric bikes and less than 50cc motor bikes(scooters & mopeds) are very popular along the rt 1A seacoast road/area in NH too.
Another place they are a must is Acadia National Park up in Bar Harbor, ME. They make riding up the hills on the carriage roads fun. Especially, when you are easily passing other tourists straining/sweating as you are just cruising along.
I have made 60 miles on a single charge with 21% remaining. To do this you have to put a committed effort into the ride. I wouldn't expect to get more 25 or so miles on throttle alone.
I just purchased a second battery and am modifying the rear rack to stow it without interfering with the saddle paniers. I will be attempting some long distance bike-packing rides this Summer. Stay at campsites and/or hotels, recharge the batteries, sample some local brews along the way. There are a lot of very interesting trails I imagine doing. The Erie Canal Towpath from Buffalo to Albany, The GAP/C&O trail from Pittsburgh to Washington DC, the Katy Trail along the Missouri River. I cannot do the daily mileage necessary without pedal assist.
Don't forget rain. At least one of those "crazy fast" bikes does not have fenders, so you arrive at your destination soaking wet.
It also does not take the place of a motorcycle. I had a Kawasaki KZ650 for years. It was a lot of fun to drive. It also had a top speed of 125 mph.
Even that was not fun to ride for much more than an hour or two. However, I can see these E Bikes taking the place of GASOLINE powered scooters/mopeds. The same reason battery operated outdoor power tools(like my hedge trimmer) replaced my former 2 cycle gas hedge trimmer. THEY ARE SIMPLE. No ethanol gas to deal with. No oil filter. No air filter. No spark plug. No carburetor jets to get plugged. No fuel lines getting dissolved by ethanol. No magneto. No recoil mechanism. No noise. They do not make your clothes stink when you use them. You do not need hearing protection.
There is almost NO MAINTENANCE on these E Bikes. Charge the battery. Put air in the tires. Oil the chain.
I don't think that there is any assertion that e-bikes are replacing cars. They are an inexpensive second option for nearby trips/errands/exercise. We have in-laws down the road, it's perfect for that (besides just riding for enjoyment).
Not sure where the idea that e-bikes don't have fenders originated. They certainly do if you want them. I can ride in a light rain and stay dry with raingear. I don't want to deal with it so I don't.
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