Electric motorbikes introduction

Welcome to my intro post to the electric motorcycles series. There are many reportedly battery powered electric motorbikes for sale or potentially for sale but I’m not going into every press release I’ve read. Rather I’m exploring my own views on why electric motorcycles even exist and what models you can buy.

Environmental angle: Many people think that electric vehicles in general use more exotic materials hence causes more environmental damage. the same people use  phrases like, making those batteries is so dangerous, so scary tech without understanding how they are made then posting there brainless views on Twitter their equally environmentally unfriendly toxic iPhones and expecting you to believe them. They are the same people saying that electricity is more polluting to produce then petrol.  Again indicating their complete ignorance to alternative power sources like the massive uptake of wind and solar power etc..

Now I’m not going to post all the studies I researched but there are hundreds so search using your favourite search engine along the lines of ‘are electric vehicles better for the environment’. As per any ‘research’ you read don’t believe everything you read and use some common sense and work out the supply chain for yourself!  Summarised, using  fossil fuels like petrol is more polluting and toxic over the lifetime of the vehicle than using and electric vehicle. Less materials are used during manufacture and maintenance, especially since they are exactly the same but less of it. If you recharge from a wind farm for example there is no additional pollution. The actual battery is the technically most polluting part but you are not replacing batteries every year and they can be recycled. (You can’t recycle petrol)  The same technology is used inside your mobile phone, laptop or another battery powered device.

The performance angle: Based on other countless reviews on the known electric motorcycles, they have the performance to match regular motorcycles except for range and top speed. Admittedly based on their price for performance ratio they are not quite there. The other ‘performance’ factor and the major short fall is in the looks department. None of them look any good especially for the price.

Where are the electric motorcycles: In 2020 there are only a few major manufacturers that you can order, expect delivery aka actually buy a genuine electric motorbike from. These brands are Zero, BMW, Piaggo aka Vespa and Harley Davidson that has promised manufacture and delivery some time this year. Electric motorcycles face the same marketing and operational problems as electric cars. There isn’t a brand like Tesla in the motorcycle world to promote battery powered motorcycles although many arguably ‘wanna to be’ manufacturers say they are. Over the next few weeks I’ll be covering some more points on electric motorcycles.