Why Electric Motorcycles are Failing

[Music] welcome to squamish in the rock garden of vancouver's elite and once you've ridden the property wave of destruction through your own forests you cash out a few million and come here to play hippie tesla tesla volt tesla tesla but even at this nexus of green politics and green cash not a single electric motorcycle [Music] bramo brahmo deceased mission deceased alta deceased ark deceased live wire grounded routers estimates harley sold as few as 400 in their first year which would be 0.2 of total sales statistically electric motorcycles are irrelevant even zero who sells the most sells mostly to police and military not civilians same story in the land of square plugs britain registers 1.25 million motorcycles only 537 of which are electric meanwhile 269 000 of their 32 million cars plug in meaning green motorcycles lag behind four-wheelers by a factor of 20. electric motorcycles are failing take my own as a physical demonstration sat at a stoplight it uses no energy breaking for the next one it re-squeezes juice into the battery city range is as limitless as if this was full of gas but at top speed yeah i'm stuck with a single gear so it uses batteries of power just to put down enough torque to fight the wind with cars elon can solve the highway range problem give it extra slippery bodywork up top another thousand pounds of batteries below from where you sit in between who cares but on a bike my torso is what it is ladies i ain't getting any more aerodynamic than this and if that weighs a thousand pounds i'm gonna notice hence electric four-wheelers pushing 400 clicks on the highway while the best e-motorcycles barely top 100 not least because they can't fit a second motor geared for highway efficiency i know i know to some extent we could add windshield and wheelbase but then we've built a touring motorcycle which moves the range goal posts even further it's not that electric cars make sense while motorcycles don't it's just that e-motorcycles mainly make sense in the city for now oh hi i'm the motorcycle industry it's impossible to misunderestimate my competence sure the physics favors urban use but i'm no physician business is about sales emcs lag pitifully behind cars but e-bicycles are leapfrogging ahead we're projected to buy 130 million of them in the next three years meaning the best-selling evs of all will be two-wheelers that are cheap practical and fit in the elevator the solution it's right in front of us obviously we must build expensive performance oriented huge machines that will attract your typical millennial the target buyer is young but debt free with six figures of expendable income she is an environmental activist yet always wished to enter competitive power sports she lives in the city but has a private garage to install a charge point oh and a pet unicorn aside the electric motorcycles that actually sell are cheap small and rideable with a regular driver's license something they've already figured out in china and the denser parts of europe and something our major manufacturers keep teasing yet failing to provide come on north america how hard can it be first off there's a lot of you don't need and the tc90 super legera looks better anyway the hipsters love these ruler sharp frame lines which are laid to bear without all the internal combustion crap only this bulbous seat ruins the backbone so let's chuck it heat the plastic pan of a plank seat and smoosh it to fit nice and i gain access to this grab bar which is handy for manhandling her into my apartment sounds creepy remember to resist anything too fast or expensive this 1500 watt hub motor is the max you can ride without a motorcycle license and this 20 amp hour battery is tiny yet packs enough energy to get you through the day like a timbit 1400 bucks from china hardware spyware all in and since we're dealing directly with the factory the children offered to build the motor axle to match my swingarm width and the battery cells to match those frame mounts imagine the service if we ordered like a thousand of them i cut some kydex drill heat and bend to shape add some insulation and a grommet for cables there's our battery box the controller screws to the tank the switch gear dash throttle and levers clamped the bars and because it all came together it all plugs together for anyone who has lost their evening rebuilding a carb electric for anyone who has lost their day rebuilding a top end electric for anyone who has lost their mind troubleshooting and no start electric is tempting isn't that i bought the junker for 300 bucks so we're into it under two grand on this flat testing ground she holds 50 kph at three-quarter throttle and i run it for 60 kilometers until the battery dies practical little commuter [Music] this is what makes sense given a motorcycle's physical constraints on weight and arrow and you can market it to 100 of the urban youth not the three percent with motorcycle licenses and garages to keep them appliance-esque accessibility like the super cub of 1960s fame it's an opportunity to sell people not just on an electric motorcycle but motorcycles in general unfortunately we keep building impractical highway machines for imaginary buyers and that is why electric motorcycles are failing to keep up with the ev movement of course i also failed at bringing something better to market because i can't sell this i love it [Music] [Music]

Channel: FortNine

Views: 2,075,862

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Id: O2zlYpy6QCM

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021