Seeing some motorbike deals got me thinking about battery bikes and where we are at heading into 2024. I'm curious about a practical commuter that can do 100 km/h and be reasonably priced with decent reviews 🤔
Update: I live semi rural and need to ride on 100km/h roads for 150kms before charge. Don't need removable battery.
Are they worth considering?? How deep are your pockets?? What are your expectations?
I have already done and I am always doing research on EV motorcycles… I currently own one and have owned others and have one on order. So, yes, they are worth considering, BUT, only if you understand their limitations and dont put the expectations of a petrol motorcycle onto an electric one. Electric bikes excel in very niche areas. They do dont everything, but what they do, they do it very well.
A lot depends on what your requirements are. "cheap and does 100km/h" isnt really narrowing it down…
How far do you plan on riding it?
This 100km/h is for how long? 2km or 50+km (Or a mental hurdle of "it would be nice if…")
Is this a work commuter for city traffic or a weekend mountain blaster (it cant really be "both")
What kind of charging will it require, type 2 or GP outlet?
Do you live in a house with a garage or an appartment? (ie: will it require a removeable battery)
Are you thinking/wanting beyond what you actually need? (Want 100km/h but only need 60~70km/h)
Form factor, you want a sport bike, naked or a scooter?
There are a few more out there (Tinbot/Kolter/eMos) and there are some others that in other markets (Ultravoilet) or not yet released (ZeeHo/Damon/Verge) models that I didn't bother mentioning because they are either not available here or are in such a low sales position, they are an unknown or are just simply vapourware at this point.
InB4 all the misinformation and unrealistic expectations starts flooding in. I cant go from Sydney to Melbourne on a single tank. I cant ride for 4 hours at 120km/h. They all catch on fire. They all take 37 hours to charge. The batteries will only last 3 weeks and will need to be replaced at a cost of $39,000. Range is only 28km. My mate has one and they dont go over 30km/h. Insert something about them only being kids toys. They cost 8x the amount an equivalent petrol bike would cost… The list goes on…
I immediately upvoted your post without even reading it. Amazing amount of info there thank you so much mate. I should have given more info and here it is (OP updated)
I live semi rural and need to ride on 100km roads for 150kms before charge. (Don't need removable battery) Which I now see limits me immensely. I respect the amount of research you have done and appreciate sharing it to save others time.
100km/h for 150km? Buy a petrol bike. There are no bikes in any regular person's pay grade that are going to do that kinda work cheaply. Most of the big, full-sized EV bikes are going to struggle at 100km/h for 150km, and you are looking at $27,000+ for even the cheaper end of that scale.
If you live rural, petrol power still reigns as king of the long distance. If you want to save some coin on running costs, don't go over and above what you need, ie: don't buy a 1800cc motorized armchair if a 900cc would do the same job.
I would be looking at cruisers if it is highway stints or adventure bikes if it's crappy rural patchwork tarred country roads.
Electric bikes are improving in leaps and bounds, but it's going to be a very long time before they can compete with bikes outside of a city commute. Unlike cars, bikes have a very finite amount of space to put batteries and about 3/4 the cost of an EV bike is in that battery, so it still doesn't make sense if you live rural or want to spend your weekends carving up the local mountain roads.
I think with the advent of Kawasaki releasing a hybrid bike, that this will be the next step for bikes. Small capacity engines supported by a high torque electric motor and a smaller battery…
Livewire, best H-D product
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As someone that knows someone that owns a HD Livewire… Yeah, nah. The only good thing about it is the onboard DC charge port that not many bikes have. Most have a Type 2 charging port (only larger bikes) if they have anything… Everything else runs off off-board chargers that have their own variant of a priority plug.
Also, the only thing that has stopped me from buying a HD Livewire is the abysmal build quality. Holy shit it's bad. Very poor quality components and fit and finish, even by HD standards. And that resale value. Ho. Lee. Fuch. $50k new and 12~18 months later $25~30k if you are lucky… And there is no "EV incentive" for bikes other than stamp duty exemption.
But as a bike to ride… Better check in for reinforcement of your arm sockets, at full power and full throttle, I've ridden litre sports bikes that don't pull as hard as the Livewire does from a standstill. One of the few bikes I thought was going to leave me behind as it took off.
I will end up buying one eventually, but for the build quality and the resale, I'll wait till they are in the mid $10~15k bracket once they are out of warranty.
Great info in here - kudos @pegaxs
I’m looking forward to either:
- a swap and go battery system for larger bikes (I think there’s a scooter one going in India that even works across multiple brands), or
- new battery tech that allows higher energy density at a lower weight
- maybe a mild hybrid option
Plenty of great advancements in the list above - the format of Motorbikes seem a bit awkward for current electric tech - for the range and weight I like in my petrol bike. Lighter weight generally means fewer batteries and less range - and charging still takes a while
Cheers. I love my EV motorcycles. Spent too much time researching them over the last few years. I run a side hustle restoring, repairing and servicing bike in my spare time and I just want to be ahead of the curve when they take off.
Swappable batteries are a good idea for motorbikes and microcars. Just as long as the industry comes up with a couple of standard form factors, not a hundred. Be cool if it was as simple as small, medium or large box then standardise the voltage and firmware such that they are all interchangeable (like AA standard) and just keep stuffing more capacity in as battery tech advances.
I don’t want to see it like camcorder batteries back in the day where every camera had a different shape size and capacity and needed it’s own charger.
@Euphemistic: 100%… there needs to be a joint collaboration between a majority of manufacturers on swapable batteries, but as we all know, every company will think that their engineers have it right, and when Company A wont implement/accept Company B's ideas, Company B will just go out and build their own.
It will unfortunately take something like the European Union stepping in and saying… "NO! All motorcycle EV batteries will have to adhere to ECE78.11a or they wont be sold here… period" much like they have done in the past and most recently with Apple and their USB 3 charging ports.
@pegaxs: Bring on euro standards. Seem to be the only way we get more collaborative manufacturing. Standardised USB charging is a start.
Right to repair etc will also help because manufacturers won’t want to stock special batteries for spare parts and be less worried about keeping their own social designs.
I don't know shit about bikes but the sheer number of business is a bad sign for future parts availability. They can't all survive!
The Chinese out-of-the-cheapest-factory-possible models won’t last. They are pretty much throw away items when they fail - although the battery and controller will probably be cheapo generic items. Unfortunately they’ll require some sort of enthusiast with skills to make repairs.
The more mainstream manufacturers will come on board and support their product, but you’ll have to pay for it.
Disappointing that the Livewire S2 Del Mar isnt on the cards for Australia. Looks like an awesome bike
I'm a bit disappointed that the LiveWire brand (once it was separated from Harley) wasn't bought down here. Apparently it had a lot to do with dealers not wanting to put in any infrastructure for charging the bikes.
Added to that, it was priced stupidly. $50k for an electric bike when an EV car can be had for the same price. And you cant tell me that there is $50k value in a bike like there is in a car. I think it was set up to fail and set up to fail on purpose. They priced these bike in such a way that they would fail and then they could turn around and say "You see, no one wants EV motorcycles…" When, if they made them $29,990, they probably couldn't ship them to Australia fast enough.
Zero is in the same boat. The bikes are reasonably priced in the USA, but over here, they are insanely eye wateringly expensive. In the US, the top of the range naked Zero SR/F is USD$20,500 (AUD$30,500). In Australia, a "used" one will set you back $40,000++. I get that there is GST and import taxes on these things, but not to the tune of $10,000+ for each bike.
If these companies really wanted to push into this market with a decent offering, they could do it, but they all seem hell bent on killing the idea of electric bikes.
Maybe with Zero having a proper importer (Peter Stevens) now it might have a fairer opportunity for success. However, I havent seen much advertising.
Agree with the pricing. $50K was nuts. I think if Honda could release the e version of the Honda CB750 Hornet at a reasonable price it would go crazy
but not to the tune of $10,000+ for each bike.
Especially when you can fit a lot of them in a shipping container, unlike cars that take up so much more space and therefore shipping costs.
Nah.
No one has really nailed the formula. All that has been available is expensive, high performance bikes or cheap nasty ones. If one of the established manufacturers leaned into it and made some affordable entry level motorbikes with the quality/reliability/support that comes with it you’ll see a bigger uptake.
Have you seen Nope? Electric bikes are dangerous when biblical angel aliens attack.
Pegaxes has some great info.
But its also worth waiting a bit because Honda, Kawasaki and a few newer brands that I forget the name of off the top of my head, are all bringing some models to Australia within the next year or 2 that should fit your needs.
I don't think there is a practical electric motorbike of your specifications. 100km/hr and <200km range is a very high entry price point and niche at current time.
I have had a surron light bee since mid 2021, it's road registered and I live about 8km out of dubbo. it's been really, really, really great. I can fly around my property without the loudness of a petrol motor, it's light af to handle, servicing is minimal, and it's about $300 a year to rego and insure
it does have the stock battery which is….ok. if I put it into sports mode (up to 80pkh) I can get into town and back, with a bit of poking around in town, and as I get to my driveway it goes into limp mode, but I have only done that once and I am pretty sure it wasn't at 100% when I left. I have looked at the ebmx range of bigger batteries and I nearly bought one this month during the sale (but I left it too late!). however given I only do <5km trips around the property, I very rarely run into issues with battery range
the lightness of the bike does get a little problematic when going up hills or over bigger rocks as the back tire tends to lose traction. the rear mud guard is also shit, 3rd party options are much better at preventing the rooster tail ending up all over you
I am considering the larger road-registered enduro model that has a higher speed and bigger battery, but it's double the cost and tbh, I don't ride into town enough to warrant a higher speed or larger range!
Haven't done extensive research but I was looking at the Fonz Arthur range and considered that if my company ever decided to go full time in office. The powerpack is portable so you can charge it in the office.
Luckily we're still work from home mostly so I scrapped the idea