Electric Superbike

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oh they are viable now in urban commuting which represents the bulk of the problem. Won't tale alll that long to roll out as long as incentives remain to switch over. Urban fleet has 10-15 years so you can bet by that time there will be a high % for that purpose. Longer haul will be hybrid.
It cost buddy on a car share to drive 50 km from Toronto to Mississauga at highway speed $1.32 in a current Prius.
That's about half what my mcycle would cost.
Charging stations are an issue tho.
 
Flywheel said:
Processing enough heavy metals to electrify the world's auto transportation network is going to take a horrendous toll on the environment, worse than is already the case. Maybe James Cameron's asteroid mining venture will help, although the initial focus of that project is precious metals (gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, etc).

Electricity costs will rise as demand rises, but that's a given. New generating stations, reactors and mass installations of wind/solar turbines won't come cheaply. Still, not having street level smog, which is where we live most of our lives, is a net gain I think.

It took about a century of sustained development to give us the ICE vehicles of today. Electrical vehicles will probably need at least half that to become a viable market alternative.
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Very well put!

There is also the issue if your electricity is coal generated basically you have a coal powered car/bike.

Electric vehicles are the choice of the governments, and it is the influence in policy and gov funding that makes takes them to where they are today. Without that...

Hydrogen on the other hand is not well supported by the gov to the level of electric BUT it does not have any of the problems mentioned above and hydrogen can be generated in a location with cheap and clean electricity and shipped as opposed to being locally created. You cna fill-up on the road as well, once the infrastructure is built. It is explosive, but so is gas. If we had hydrogen cars today and someone suggested gas, the safety argument would be the same....
 
LoneRonin said:
no **** Sherlock...whose really gonna travel and tour on superbike anyways? These things will easily last a track weekend on a full charge...
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Certainly 260km will not last a full weekend at the track. I get around 160-180km a day quite easily on a full day at the track. Will definitely need a multi-hour recharge inbetween.
 
If they come out with a sport touring model I'd buy it.. but it needs a 1,000km range.

Yes my bike now is only 300 to a tank, but the difference is you can fill a tank in 3 minutes or less at any given gas station.. this thing needs a 2 hour recharge cycle, so it has to be good for at least a full day and then charging stations need to be available at all hotels, camp grounds etc for it to be viable as a replacement bike.

Definitely a cool idea though. For those who can afford more then one bike or only use it for shorter rides or to commute it's great.
 
cue tesla motors?

would probably be perfect for them since theyre already getting the electric cars figured out!
 
I'm a big fan of the tablet display, feels like a glass cockpit! And the wind up of the engine sounds like a quiet jet so I'm reallly liking this.

And can't it just plug into an outlet via extension cord (with that charger thing)? They said it can charge on 110V. IMHO if they could get 200km on a 15 min charge then it'd be viable. VERY few people don't want to get off their sport bike after 200km anyways for a quick stretch, take a leak w/e so it wouldn't be that inconvinient and it'd be cheap to run.
 
DSoup said:
I'm a big fan of the tablet display, feels like a glass cockpit! And the wind up of the engine sounds like a quiet jet so I'm reallly liking this.

And can't it just plug into an outlet via extension cord (with that charger thing)? They said it can charge on 110V. IMHO if they could get 200km on a 15 min charge then it'd be viable. VERY few people don't want to get off their sport bike after 200km anyways for a quick stretch, take a leak w/e so it wouldn't be that inconvinient and it'd be cheap to run.
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That's the alien technology that we need unfortunately. A similar bike has a 12.5 kwh battery pack. To charge in 15 minutes (assuming the batteries could take it), would require ~400 amps at 120 volts (or ~200 amps at 240 volts), neither one is remotely practical and this doesn't take into account any losses in the charger.

Chemical energy is easy to transfer, electrical energy is relatively difficult. If you wanted to recharge without swapping physical batteries, maybe a station could trade your battery acid for some that was ready to go (I am not sure this would work, but it would be quick enough to be feasible if it worked chemically).
 
The range on that is between 125 and 240 kms depending on driving, averaging ~180kms. How many people drive further than 90kms from their house on a daily basis? I commute from Guelph to Mississauga and would love this thing. Even at current technology I'd just charge it at work or at home then go. It would actually be more convenient than gas for me. For longer rides however, I don't see why the battery packs couldn't just be swappable (I know nothing about batteries and could be way off) so you stop at a station, pull your battery, they give you a charged one, and you're off just like propane tanks. As far as price is concerned, it almost certainly will be more expensive up front, but the savings over time would offset the initial investment. I spend without question more on gas, than I do the vehicle I put gas in over a 5 year period.
 
Renboy said:
... I don't see why the battery packs couldn't just be swappable (I know nothing about batteries and could be way off) so you stop at a station, pull your battery, they give you a charged one, and you're off just like propane tanks. As far as price is concerned, it almost certainly will be more expensive up front, but the savings over time would offset the initial investment. I spend without question more on gas, than I do the vehicle I put gas in over a 5 year period.
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The batteries are among the most expensive replaceable parts in an electric vehicle, the cost to operate a swap out station would make the cost to run a gas station look like child's play... not to mention there is a life span issue on them.. having a swap out service would mean you are getting someone else's battery back not your own.. no grantee of how much capacity it still has.. then lets take the issue of the amount of power in the batteries.. changing them is relatively dangerous.. a trained tech wearing insulated boots and gloves actually grounds his/herself to a work bench to remove/install one.. not something I'd have the average pump jockey do at a gas station.. even then.. there's probably the most prohibitive issue... there isn't a standard for electric vehicle battery's.. the battery from a prius won't fit the chevy volt and neither would fit this bike etc etc.. so the multi million dollar swap station would have to carry a rediculous amount of different battery and several of each.. it's just not going to happen.

That said.. I think charging stations will become more prevalent.. maybe not wide spread in our lifetime.. then again maybe so, as electric vehicles become more popular and technology is invented for quicker chargers..
 
just_luc said:
That said.. I think charging stations will become more prevalent.. maybe not wide spread in our lifetime.. then again maybe so, as electric vehicles become more popular and technology is invented for quicker chargers..
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Agreed on the impracticality of swapping, but charging station are getting really popular in Victoria BC. They even get preferential parking spots!
 
GreyGhost said:
T

Chemical energy is easy to transfer, electrical energy is relatively difficult. If you wanted to recharge without swapping physical batteries, maybe a station could trade your battery acid for some that was ready to go (I am not sure this would work, but it would be quick enough to be feasible if it worked chemically).
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I don't think swapping acid would work. Not a battery expert but 1st and second year chemistry leads me to believe that the battery is many pressurised cells which would be really hard to safety swap any electrolyte on the inside. Secondly I believe that charging changes the liCoO_2 into Li CoO_2 and that's there they energy potetial is. I'm not sure you could just swap this part out?

And Ifanyone knows whether Li-ion or Li-po batteries would be used and why that'd be interesting.
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