Carbon-Fibered Electric Motorcycle to Be Tesla of Electric Motorcycles?

Posted on August 4, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

This is a sweet new electric motorcycle plan recently unveiled in Norway, as covered by Chris DeMorro of Gas2:

67-Pound Carbon Fiber Electric Motorcycle Revealed In Norway (via Gas 2.0)

While electric cars are stumbling, electric motorcycles are finding more and more fans in the marketplace thanks to improved performance and generous subsidies. Brands like Brammo and Zero Motorcycles here in America are making a name for electric motorcycles. Over in Norway however, a group of 5 college…

Zachary Shahan (2359 Posts)

I'm the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular clean energy website in the world, and Planetsave, a leading green and science news site. I've been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and I've been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, bicycling, and wind energy for the past few years. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Think Progress, GE's ecomagination site, several sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. To connect on some of your favorite social networks, go to zacharyshahan.com or click on some of the links below.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Miller/100000952005408 Bruce Miller

With progressive drought killing off the “ethanol miracle”, and America reduced to domestic energy sources as the Middle Eastern Oil dries up or is bought up by much higher bids in Yuan from the new (Asian) kid on the block, even as we see the conversion, the “Paradigm Shift” from massive V-8 land cruisers to tiny 4 bangers, the total collapse of Detroit City, American Automotive design and manufacture, ( anybody remember the Oldsmobiles?) America balks on electrics?

This is my favourite cut and paste!

“Had the $650 billions+ spent on
Iraq, been spent on conventional Solar/Thermal development of South
Western U.S.A. : Today Americans would receive a “return on
investment”, in place of horrendous tax rates to service
unpayable debt to China. Americans would be gainfully working, using
this renewable, perpetual, eternal, electricity source ( oil wells do
go dry – the Sun never stops shining, Wind blows forever) to compete
in world markets with products, and much less foreign oil would be
imported. This is the lost “opportunity cost” for having
Saddam’s scrotum on the Bushes mantlepiece? Shiite eh!”
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Both GM and Ford are building electrics. I’m not sure I’d get too carried away with the ” total collapse of Detroit City, American Automotive design and manufacture” just yet.
Hope

Finally! Although I should imagine the stats for Li-ion combined with carbon fibre would have been genuinely impressive. Seems a little daft to use cheaper batteries in combination with such an expensive material.
Bob_Wallace

EVs and PHEVs are selling much higher numbers during their first year on market than what happened with the first year of hybrid car sales.
http://ronaldbrak.blogspot.com.au/ Ronald Brak

Are electric cars stumbling? I guess what I am asking is, are electric inventories increasing? Or are electric car sales low because very few electric cars are made? Because I haven’t seen a single electric car for sale in Australia. The only non conversion electrics I’ve seen were leased by large organisations. I presume if one had enough money one could get one’s hands on say a leaf, but available for normal purchase? I don’t think that has happened here. And this is a land where gasoline is much more expensive than the US, so that makes me think that maybe electric cars aren’t up for normal sale in the US either.

Anyway, enough whinging about that. This bike looks like one sweet ride and it’s so light that if its surface was photovoltaic it could get a significant portion of its energy from sunshine. (Of course it would help if the rider wasn’t too heavy.) And I like how it’s light enough for me to pick up and strap to my back.

Now that I think about it, a solar powered bike that can be carried over obstacles would be a big seller for those preparing for a zombie apocalypse. Maybe if it ever gets built they could use that as a selling point.
- Rob
  
  There’s no such thing as EV inventory, no one has ever made EVs faster then they could sell them, ergo no one really knows what the demand is. The other implication of EVs never sitting on lots is that the percentage of people who buy a car by visiting the lot, kicking the tires and going for a test drive, will never be exposed to an EV with the current marketing and rollout strategy.
  - Bob_Wallace
    
    There are some dealer demonstrator models. Sometimes you’ll see anti-EV folks writing about “EVs sitting on the lot” when they are actually not accounting for demo models which will later be sold as used models once the new models come out.
    
    Late last year GM instructed their dealers to sell off their demo units to help ease some of the demand for Volts. People were buying faster than GM could produce.
    
    It will be interesting to watch sales next year with the Leaf. Japan seems to getting past it’s Fukushima problems and back into full production. Nissan’s Smyrna, Tennessee and Sunderland, England plants should be up and going.
  - http://ronaldbrak.blogspot.com.au/ Ronald Brak
    
    Thanks for the info.
Matt

I think you have to consider a lot of us Hybrid buyers as electric cars on training wheels. The Prius is now the 3rd best seller car in the world! And for people located out in the middle of the USA, that is not on the cost, it can be hard to get a electric car. Most are introduced into limited markets first. Change is no linear, it appears very slow at first and then takes off.
Anne

“While electric cars are stumbling,”

No no no. All wrong.

3 years ago there was nothing. Now we have:
Mitsubishi i-Miev/Peugeot iOn/Citroen C-Zero
Nissan LEAF
Tesla Model S
Chevrolet Volt
Ford Focus Electric
Hond Fit EV
Smart ED
Toyota RAV4 EV
Renault Fluence ZE
Renault Kangoo ZE
and perhaps a few that I have forgotten…

I can not reconciliate the raving reviews that the Model S got and its 12,000+ waiting list with the expression ‘stumbling’.

In reality, the EV world has rested mainly on the shoulders of just 2 cars: the Nissan LEAF and the Mitsubishi i-Miev. With so little choice you can’t expect electric vehicles sales to take off like a Falcon 9. And with Nissan close to opening it’s Smyrna, TN plant, a cheaper and better LEAF is close to hitting the market. I expect many LEAF buying candidates to know this and hold off their purchase.

Please CleanTechnica, cut the negativity! Cars are not mobile phones and disruptive changes take more time than just 2 or 3 years.