Perfect City bike now, is a bicycle. Lots of trails around if you can get to them safely, 8 km commute from my house. Only problem right now, is the TTC's war on the bike, limiting access to the trails downtown. E.g. Front from Bathurst in.
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Has the perfect city bike/commuter arrived??
- Thread starter MacDoc
- Start date
The speed/range issue is true of any bike.
EVs are only good for 90% of people on a daily basis, but you cannot argue with people when the number one selling vehicle in North America is the thirsty pickup..for that one time every 6 years you need to carry something big, or climb a cinder-block mountain hurrr..pickup...hurrr.
I have a friend with a Nissan Leaf, he does not suffer from range anxiety because he can do math in his head, for the few times a year he does a road trip with the family, they rent a comfy van and abuse the crap out of it. He doesn't do it for saving money, he does it because he was in the military and he was sick of seeing his friends fighting wars for fake ideals when its all just about cheap oil.
As one of those big pick-up truck owners, I do use the pick-up part of the truck on a regular basis. That said I still do enough non-pick-up driving to warrant turning over a new leaf.
Face
Well-known member
The perfect commuter bike is the one in my garage. I can also use it for a 500 km fun ride on the weekend, or a multi-day tour. Regardless of whether its a used or new electric, or cheap small ICE, I can't justify the additional cost to own, maintain & insure a 2nd bike just for commuting. When the infrastructure is in place to allow electric to compete for the range of things I use a motorcycle for, then I'll consider one.
The electrics a few years from now will be nothing like today, but they need to get away from Li Ion batteries.
This was just patented at Stanford: aluminum ion, cheap, does not catch fire (you can drill through it), lighter, >3500 cycles, charges in 60 seconds.
http://www.businessinsider.com/stanford-aluminum-ion-battery-charges-smartphone-one-minute-2015-4
The way the research is going, and the rate of new patents, it is very likely electrics will outperform ICE bikes in as little as 5 years, and they could even be significantly cheaper.
Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Harley all have electrics ready to roll as soon as batteries get better. Honda has a huge number of patents, including a movable stator that is foot-shifted and makes the bike equally efficient at highway and city speeds. This will be on the TT Zero bike at IoM this year.
This was just patented at Stanford: aluminum ion, cheap, does not catch fire (you can drill through it), lighter, >3500 cycles, charges in 60 seconds.
http://www.businessinsider.com/stanford-aluminum-ion-battery-charges-smartphone-one-minute-2015-4
The way the research is going, and the rate of new patents, it is very likely electrics will outperform ICE bikes in as little as 5 years, and they could even be significantly cheaper.
Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Harley all have electrics ready to roll as soon as batteries get better. Honda has a huge number of patents, including a movable stator that is foot-shifted and makes the bike equally efficient at highway and city speeds. This will be on the TT Zero bike at IoM this year.
Alex_San
Well-known member
We lease a Nissan Leaf. It's the best commuter car for us. Me and my wife fight over who gets to drive it (during the winter, I ride to work in the summer). We have an old Mazda 3 for longer road trips. I can get pretty much everywhere in the GTA on one charge (and back). The govt. incentive is $8500, plus half of the costs to install a level 2 charger, up to $1000.
I was thinking a lot about getting a Zero, but I love my Daytona too much. Plus the cost is a bit too high now, no govt incentive, and I asked Allstate about insurance and they classify Zero SR as a 650cc(???) and the quote was higher than my Daytona, no idea why. I pointed to the clerk that the bike has no cc, it's electric, and she said she'll get back to me about it, but never did. I would love to see other quotes from other insurance companies.
I was thinking a lot about getting a Zero, but I love my Daytona too much. Plus the cost is a bit too high now, no govt incentive, and I asked Allstate about insurance and they classify Zero SR as a 650cc(???) and the quote was higher than my Daytona, no idea why. I pointed to the clerk that the bike has no cc, it's electric, and she said she'll get back to me about it, but never did. I would love to see other quotes from other insurance companies.
strictlye
Well-known member
People don't realize that they will have the heat or A/C on, or radio, power seats windows etc. So many things in the car will drain the battery.
Alex_San
Well-known member
Actually, that is not true, except for the heater. By far, the biggest drain on the battery outside of the drivetrain is the heater and that was reworked in 2013, it's more efficient now. One can mitigate that with heated seats front/rear plus heated steering wheel. One look at the energy usage screen will show how insignificant the accessories are as far as battery drain goes.
The truth is, however, that you need to look long and hard to see if it's the right car for you. Level 3 chargers are pretty much non existent (3 locations in the GTA, 2 very close to each other). 401 was stacked with level 2 chargers, but they're useless since it takes a few hrs to charge the car, so that's a useless investment.
A Tesla motor throws off quite a bit of heat, it is liquid cooled. But some of that heat has to be conserved to keep the batteries warm above 15C.
You drive sliding the windows and seats up and down continuously?
A lot of the A/C in an ICE car is dealing with the heat generated from the motor bay.
Accesorial capacity draw will not be an issue in cars. It was at the very beginning when the batteries were small and it could still be an issue on a very small motorcycle battery. The car batteries capacities are growing all the time, like processor speeds .....
The only question is, can you live with a very one-dimensional vehicle? If you cannot or simply don't want to, because the vehicle selection at price point is very limited, you have to still look elsewhere.
I am also curious, once there's enough of these vehicles, how will the L3 charging be priced? Surely, nobody will make the investment without revenue guarantees. Parking is expensive in GTA (even at hospitals!!), I believe L3 charging will become pretty good business as well in the future.
The only question is, can you live with a very one-dimensional vehicle? If you cannot or simply don't want to, because the vehicle selection at price point is very limited, you have to still look elsewhere.
I am also curious, once there's enough of these vehicles, how will the L3 charging be priced? Surely, nobody will make the investment without revenue guarantees. Parking is expensive in GTA (even at hospitals!!), I believe L3 charging will become pretty good business as well in the future.
Alex_San
Well-known member
Also, when battery technology will evolve and we'll be able to charge the cars in say 5 mins, everybody will want one, how will the grid handle all of it? Tesla has a 65 or 86 kwh battery, charging that in 5 mins requires a hell of a charging station. Multiply that by thousands...we run into a different set of problems.
Tesla's supercharging stations use solar power.
Tesla is also looking at building batteries to provide power for homes... maybe thats him looking ahead at the problem you mentioned.
with decrees like this:
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/03/...s-covered-in-plants-or-solar-panels/21156128/
or news like that:
http://time.com/3765609/costa-rica-fossil-fuels/
we can see a trend in more sustainable and less polluting energies and a better infrastructure and new ways of thinking
its kinda of a stretch but think about this too:
www.solarroadways.com/
If we start looking outside the box at means to not necessarily have a specific "grid" linked to it since it can only take so much stress... maybe we can find solutions that are more efficient, cleaner, and less dependent on a interlinked system that can only take so much.
Whether or not we have all those electric cars, the population is still growing so sooner or later we have to find a way to offset the higher demand in energy/power.
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