• It's time to vote for the bikes you want to see in the 2025 XS650 Calendar! Vote here!

Electric Vehicles, Hybrids...Battery tech... Land Air and Sea. Let's See 'em.

Is the internal combustion engine doomed to history

  • Yes

    Votes: 10 24.4%

  • No

    Votes: 23 56.1%

  • Not sure

    Votes: 5 12.2%

  • Don't care

    Votes: 2 4.9%

  • ...er... what was the question again?

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Total voters
    41
Why is the evolution of electric motorcycles so slow? Car and Driver tested LiveWires newest EV and while impressed with the build quality and acceleration, your still looking at a 50 mile range maximum and even though they had two bikes to test, one had to be returned to the dealer with electronic fault problems and the other had software glitches. This bike can be yours for just a tick under $16,000.

https://apple.news/AQOte4f-HT7mvMT4VDhsG6A

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Mailman said:
Why is the evolution of electric motorcycles so slow? Car and Driver tested LiveWires newest EV and while impressed with the build quality and acceleration, your still looking at a 50 mile range maximum and even though they had two bikes to test, one had to be returned to the dealer with electronic fault problems and the other had software glitches. This bike can be yours for just a tick under $16,000.

https://apple.news/AQOte4f-HT7mvMT4VDhsG6A

View attachment 336329View attachment 336330
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Speaking just for myself, everything I love about motorcycles and motorcycling has nothing to do with an EV. Internal combustion engines excite me. I like to tinker. I like to go long and off the beaten path. My motorcycle can not be replaced by an EV. When the EV is the only option, I’m just out and not having it. I don’t know how many motorcyclists feel like I do, but if it’s a lot then these things require a whole new or other customer base. Perhaps Harley Davidson is just playing around with this to preserve their future in case they have to go that way.
 
Hybrids are best suited to applications where you have a driving cycle with a lot of stop and go, like a garbage collection truck for example.

For e-motorcycles, the weight and cost of a battery with adequate range would simply make the bike too heavy to perform and far too expensive to sell very well. Until batteries take a quantum leap in performance / kilogram, I’d say that electric motorcycles are going to struggle for acceptance.
 
MaxPete said:
Hybrids are best suited to applications where you have a driving cycle with a lot of stop and go, like a garbage collection truck for example.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily.
They also perform well when the majority of your journeys tend to be local. We have a range of 45 miles in the summer :) and 30 :( in the winter.
That's been enough to do just over 70% by distance and 85% by time on battery power. The balance is when we venture further afield.
We get an average fuel consumption of 145 to the (UK) gallon.

The latest version of our car can do 60 miles on a charge so that should improve the percentage travelled on battery.
 
Can Am is introducing two new electric motorcycles. Everything is built in house with some new takes on engineering. The battery will be made from an unconventional material, it will also be encased in steel and be a structural element of the bike, that is to say that other bike components, such as the rear suspension will be bolted directly to the battery case.

https://apple.news/Ao9w-HfYsQBmjjEksMp11Rg

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