When the car business sneezes, motorcycles catch a cold. That’s an old saying in this business — one that was already old when I first started working at a dealership in 1997 — but it is a saying that, by and large, has held true.
A cool electric vehicle total cost of ownership calculator from a California utility (for its region), the horrible situation the state of Louisiana is in with regards to the coronavirus epidemic and COVID-19, coming gas station bankruptcies, and Elon Musk’s offer of ventilators to any hospital urgently needing them led CleanTechnica’s list of the most popular stories last week.
Royal Enfield is probably not the company you’d expect to develop a cutting edge, on-trend electric motorcycle. And, you’d be right, because this ultra slick, polished electric Royal Enfield Photon model wasn’t built by the Indian company. It was built on the other side of the world, by Electric Classic Cars in England.
this isn’t Cake’s first Red Dot Award. It’s Cake’s second, and it won them back-to-back in 2019 and 2020. In other words: it’s time to take a serious look at Cake electric motorcycles.
At GM’s recent “EV Day” in Warren, Michigan, the common feeling among attending journalists and writers after the 2-hour event was one of information overload.
Whether or not you call the BST HyperTEK a thing of beauty like the Ducati Supermono or 888 is up to you, but there’s no denying that the organic-looking carbon fiber frame is a fantastic bit of engineering. Similarly, the copper honeycomb heat sink (?) that occupies the traditional “radiator” position up front, finned aluminum motor, and slick, single-sided rear swingarm also look top-notch.
There aren’t any series to race electric motorcycles in because there aren’t enough electric motorcycles to build a series around, so nobody builds electric motorcycles for racing because there aren’t any series to race electric motorcycles in. But you’ll love this good news coming from the AMA: it is launching a brand-new Mini-E Jr. national championship class that’s specifically designed for young riders on electric motorcycles!
How hard can it be to build a great electric car? After all, a Silicon Valley startup, founded by a group of engineers with little or no experience in the auto industry, managed to produce a blockbuster automobile in a mere 10 years, and has now become the USA’s most valuable automaker. A couple of electric motors, some laptop batteries, a barrel full of chutzpah, and you’re in, right?
We attended yet another National Drive Electric Week event this past weekend, this one (CleanTechnica’s 4th? 5th?) was in Oldsmar, Florida, and went quite beyond electric vehicles.
As I’ve watched the growth of US EV fast charging infrastructure accelerate over the last year or so, I’ve noticed a pattern. Stations almost always get built either in places with high population density or to connect those areas. The needs of people living in small cities and rural areas are usually an afterthought along the interstates, and not a thought at all in other areas. There are often legitimate economic and cultural reasons behind this, but giving urban people more and more infrastructure presents a contradiction.
