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Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

yatrimotorcycles.com

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Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#41

Post by imglorp »

forinti wrote: post #33

Is there a reason for most motorcycles not to be electric by now? Few people take them on the road, they seem to be used mostly in cities, so there's not a big problem with range. They are small, so you would have less of a problem setting up the charging infrastructure in your house.

Electrics are still milking the premium market, is the problem.

In the West, a brand new Ninja 400 fuel injected sport bike is $US 5000, new. Through economies of scale, and their getting the bugs out and widening tolerances over its 30 years history, they're now the AK-47 of bikes: cheap and dependable. You can spend $20k on a bike, but you don't need to. Similar Honda and Suzuki models. Harley and BMW can't and won't touch this part of the market.

The Zero starts at $US 11k but you need to spend more like 18k to get something as useful as the current gas bikes.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#43

Post by cerberusss »

BubRoss wrote: post #39
forinti wrote: post #33

Is there a reason for most motorcycles not to be electric by now? Few people take them on the road, they seem to be used mostly in cities, so there's not a big problem with range. They are small, so you would have less of a problem setting up the charging infrastructure in your house.

As far as I can tell, a huge part is that they are incredibly overpriced. No one is going to pay $14k for an electric cycle when a brand new gas cycle costs $8k. People put together their own scooters from batteries, a controller and an electric motor on YouTube all the time, but companies are trying to get people to give up the same amount that could buy them a Ducati.

A friend of mine drives a zero. The very low cost per mile makes it cost effective.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#44

Post by jacobush »

imglorp wrote: post #41
forinti wrote: post #33

Is there a reason for most motorcycles not to be electric by now? Few people take them on the road, they seem to be used mostly in cities, so there's not a big problem with range. They are small, so you would have less of a problem setting up the charging infrastructure in your house.

Electrics are still milking the premium market, is the problem. In the West, a brand new Ninja 400 fuel injected sport bike is $US 5000, new. Through economies of scale, and their getting the bugs out and widening tolerances over its 30 years history, they're now the AK-47 of bikes: cheap and dependable. You can spend $20k on a bike, but you don't need to. Similar Honda and Suzuki models. Harley and BMW can't and won…

Wow, I didn't know about the Kawasaki Ninja 400. That's a really impressive bike at a fantastic price. That would have been like 2000 dollars in 1987. Completely unheard of. Motorcycles have come a long way.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#45

Post by upofadown »

forinti wrote: post #33

Is there a reason for most motorcycles not to be electric by now? Few people take them on the road, they seem to be used mostly in cities, so there's not a big problem with range. They are small, so you would have less of a problem setting up the charging infrastructure in your house.

For the city you might as well just do an e-bike or something a lot like an e-bike.

So that leaves things like this for the highway. Motorcycles are not very aerodynamic so they tend to take a lot of battery when run fast. So you are probably better off with a small electric car.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#46

Post by wayneftw »

jacknews wrote: post #19

Sorry the website is a complete disaster for me on Firefox OS X. In any case, it looks targeted at the higher end. I would think electric bikes/mopeds can be cheaper and more reliable than gasoline, and there would be a very big market, especially in poorer countries, competing with Honda Cubs etc as general workhorses.

Worked fine for me on Chrome / XFCE / Linux.

I think it would be fantastic if electric motorcycles would become popular here in the US. Maybe then I wouldn't have to hear super loud and scary exhaust pipes! Who am I kidding though... the people who do that would find some other way to be annoyingly inconsiderate.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#48

Post by IgorPartola »

imglorp wrote: post #41
forinti wrote: post #33

Is there a reason for most motorcycles not to be electric by now? Few people take them on the road, they seem to be used mostly in cities, so there's not a big problem with range. They are small, so you would have less of a problem setting up the charging infrastructure in your house.

Electrics are still milking the premium market, is the problem. In the West, a brand new Ninja 400 fuel injected sport bike is $US 5000, new. Through economies of scale, and their getting the bugs out and widening tolerances over its 30 years history, they're now the AK-47 of bikes: cheap and dependable. You can spend $20k on a bike, but you don't need to. Similar Honda and Suzuki models. Harley and BMW can't and won…

This is correct. Also consider that almost any Japanese bike can be had used for $3k or under. Electric bikes are in low five figures and the used market is basically non-existent. We have no data on how reliable they will be long term either. Plus range and availability of charging stations is a thing.

But I think the main reason we won’t see ICE motorcycles go away soon is simply because used bikes are such a huge market. You can buy a 1970s Honda and get it to run again very cheaply and it will just plugging along. You can’t do that with cars for the most part and the safety features have improved with cars with every decade while for motorcycles they have only improved substantially in 2010s with the EU mandating ABS as a requirement. So a 2005 bike is going to be essentially the same as a 1975 one, safety-wise. I would bet in 2070 people will absolutely be riding 100 year old bikes.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#49

Post by IgorPartola »

upofadown wrote: post #45
forinti wrote: post #33

Is there a reason for most motorcycles not to be electric by now? Few people take them on the road, they seem to be used mostly in cities, so there's not a big problem with range. They are small, so you would have less of a problem setting up the charging infrastructure in your house.

For the city you might as well just do an e-bike or something a lot like an e-bike. So that leaves things like this for the highway. Motorcycles are not very aerodynamic so they tend to take a lot of battery when run fast. So you are probably better off with a small electric car.

Except you do not really ride bikes because they are efficient or convenient. They are way less convenient than cars almost every time. Exception: lane filtering in CA in traffic. Bikes are just the most fun you can have with your pants on.

Re: Yatri: First electric motorcycle to be made in Nepal

#50

Post by jdavis703 »

wayneftw wrote: post #46
jacknews wrote: post #19

Sorry the website is a complete disaster for me on Firefox OS X. In any case, it looks targeted at the higher end. I would think electric bikes/mopeds can be cheaper and more reliable than gasoline, and there would be a very big market, especially in poorer countries, competing with Honda Cubs etc as general workhorses.

Worked fine for me on Chrome / XFCE / Linux. I think it would be fantastic if electric motorcycles would become popular here in the US. Maybe then I wouldn't have to hear super loud and scary exhaust pipes! Who am I kidding though... the people who do that would find some other way to be annoyingly inconsiderate.

That loudness is a safety feature. It helps keep drivers alert for the presence of a motorcycle. I don’t ride, but I see our streets are becoming more and more dangerous as people ditch sedans for SUVs and trucks; extra sound proofing is added to cars; and people continue to text, eat or be under the influence while driving.
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