Electric Bikes... the Future?

[Scott_rider]

I've posted this before but the charging infrastructure (for cars or bikes) is not fit for purpose, in my opinion. This is my experience of a 180 mile return trip in an EV to the NEC and back...

The NEC in Birmingham has electric car chargers in the car parks that have an output of 3.5kwh. They give you 15 miles of range per 1 hour of charge. We went to the bike show last year in my mate's fully electric Mini Cooper S. It took 6.5 hours of charging to give the car the 100 miles range that was needed in order for us to get home. In my opinion, that isn't practical.

p.s. the Mini Cooper S EV has a maximum range of 145 miles so you have no option other than to recharge it for a return journey like that.

If your at one of the biggest destinations in the country in an EV but you can only get a charge of 15 miles per 1 hour then that's not very good is it...

[OB1]

I can't believe that it's nearly 5 years since I started this thread, yet little has progressed regarding infrastructure and manufacturing. Could this be due, in part, to the reluctance to change similar to what we see in many of the posts on here? Because so many cannot see beyond the next couple of years, they envisage a future with limited ranges and recharging stations that are not fit for purpose. Many seem to forget that barely 100 years ago, the same was probably being said about the internal combustion engine. Even when you step back just 40-odd years to when I began riding, most petrol stations were only open between certain hours and virtually all were closed on Sunday.

Back in May this year, I decided to take the plunge and bought an electric car: a Vauxhall Corsa E. I moved house in March and my daily commute increased from 3 miles each way a day across town to 20 miles each way across the county. I chose the Corsa over several other models due to its claimed range of just over 200 miles. The comment about the cost of running an electric car will be more than petrol or diesel is very misleading and untrue: even using the public charging station in my village, it only costs me around £50 to £60 a month to charge the car for my commute of 800 miles! Again, the comment about having to download multiple apps is misleading as most charging stations have a barcode scanner or tap-to-charge service where you can just tap your card. There are also so many incentives around if you look for them: the company I work for installed 3 charging bays for employees to charge their vehicles while at work at a subsidised cost; some supermarkets, such as Tesco, offer free charging while you're doing your shopping; there are a couple of car parks (that I have found) in Ipswich that also offer free charging while you're parked... and that's the thing, while you're doing something else, your car is charging.

One thing that seems to affect non-owners more than it does the owners of electric vehicles is range anxiety. This weekend, I'm going to be testing my Corsa: I'm driving from Suffolk to Cheshire to see my sister which is around 220 miles each way. Motorway driving will drain the battery quicker than driving around town or the countryside so I'll be expecting to have to recharge at around 160-180 miles... but I'm not worried as the built-in GPS will advise me of the most efficient route and it will plan my journey with a recharging break. Charging stations vary in performance but most will give my car enough charge to complete the trip with just a 20-minute break which is nothing out of the ordinary for that journey.

I will admit that I recharge more often than I would fuel up with an ICE vehicle... but I can do that recharge at home and at night when I'm not using the car: I don't have to make a special visit to a fuel station. In a few years, it will be the normal thing to do... just like filling up with petrol or diesel is now. Those who point to the lack of uptake and then go on to blame the poor infrastructure are themselves, holding back progress by pointing their finger at the wrong issues. The lack of infrastructure and development is all about the oil companies and their stranglehold on resources. Just like the tobacco companies, they have lobbied governments and led misinformation campaigns for decades to make you think that their supplies will last forever, climate change is not real and other forms of energy are unreliable and unviable.

[Tonibe63]

I think range anxiety and available charging points is a valid concern that needs addressing before consumers, spending their own hard earnt pennies, will even consider buying a pure EV. I would gladly change my Wife's (6k miles a year) Mini for a pure EV but living out in the sticks with very few charging points is something I find hard to argue in favour of. So I will keep the £30k in the Bank and she'll be happy in her existing fully loaded petrol Mini with a 24/7 petrol station in the village.
I also think the manufacturers are not providing the infrastructure to convince us to change. The reason why Tesla are doing well is because they have invested in their customers needs to charge and the rest of them need to club together to get us to invest in their products.

[Tonibe63]

An interesting comparison of Petrol Vs EV