Bikes

I had the pleasure of joining the Trek team in New York City this morning for a small briefing and a ride over the Williamsburg Bridge to Brooklyn on the new Trek Super Commuter 8S which due for consumers in the US later this Spring. What got us interested in this event wasn’t so much the Bosch 350W motor/500Wh battery technology but the marketing Trek was using in its campaign to sell this $5000 bike…

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Bombardier Recreational Products, better known as BRP, is having a lot of success with its Can-Am Spyder. It delivered the 100,000th unit last year. During the summer, you can’t travel far without driving by one on the road. The single rear drive wheel with two front wheels for steering is an interesting platform for an electric drivetrain and BRP knows it.

The company has been financing a project to create an all-electric version of the vehicle with the CTA and the Université de Sherbrooke for the past 5 years. They finally unveiled the all-electric concept at EVS29 last month. Expand
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Harley-Davidson unveiled its Livewire project two years ago almost to the day. While the all-electric concept with only ~60 miles of range was lacking compared to other models already available today, it showed that one of the most iconic motorcycle company, which is also obviously entrenched in internal combustion engines, is at least looking at other powertrain technologies.

At the time, Harley-Davidson made it clear that Livewire was only a concept (and good-looking one – see pictures below), but now the company confirms that it plans to bring its first electric bike to market “within the next five years”. Expand
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From 9to5Toys.com:

We’re not just talking about electric bikes as a “one day” or “down-the-road” solution any more. With smaller batteries and greater range, what once was a dream is now a feasible reality. The latest alternative fuel creation comes way of Lithium Cycles, a group out of South California that has eyes on bringing a retro-style battery-powered bike to the masses. So far, interest is heavy. The Super 73 Electric Bicycle has already raised over $165,000 in just a few days on Kickstarter…

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Airbus has a wholly-owned subsidiary called APWorks, which is set up to develop additive manufacturing techniques – especially metallic 3D printing – for the supply chains of Airbus’ main businesses. From time to time, the company releases independent products developed through their manufacturing work for Airbus.

The latest of such product is particularly interesting to us at Electrek: a 3D printed all-electric motorcycle. Expand
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Victory Motorcycle announced a surprise participation at the Isle of Man TT with the newly unveiled all-electric motorcycle: Victory RR. The Victory RR is another child of Victory Motorcycle’s union with electric bike maker Brammo through their parent company Polaris. Expand
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We recently stumbled upon a small Austrian-based company called Johammer. The firm is building an interesting futuristic-looking electric motorcycle: the Johammer J1. They launched the vehicle last year, but they recently ramp-up production and we are now seeing more of the vehicle reminiscent of a Star Wars pod racer with chopper-like handles. Expand
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Electric bike maker Zero Motorcycles filmed an interesting live tour of its Scotts Valley factory in California yesterday. You can watch the full video below. Expand
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From 9to5Toys.com:

As eBikes have gained traction over the last few years, a variety of styles have come to fruition through crowdfunding and startup companies. Initially we saw plenty of industrial designs but thankfully more traditional cruisers are hitting the scene.

Faraday has been cranking out electrical for just over five years. The San Francisco bike shop recently took to Kickstarter to fund its latest creation: the Cortland and Cortland S. With just a week to go, Faraday has flown past its crowdfunding goal. There’s still time to grab one before the campaign ends, but you’ll need to act fast as nearly every model has sold out…

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In his latest letter to reservation holders, Lit Motors CEO Daniel Kim confirmed that the startup has been granted 9 unique patent applications in the U.S. for its auto-balancing electric vehicle (AEV) technology. Expand
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Paris, the city that pioneered the huge bike share Vélib’ system a decade ago and more recently began offering Small electric cars to rent via its Autolib’ program looks like it will begin offering an in-between electric scooter renting program operated by Cityscoot company. The company is said to offer 1000 of the quiet mopeds around Paris available to anyone over 20 with a moped license…  Expand
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Without even trying out (not available in US yet) a Gogoro scooter I love the idea. It is a 2-wheeled vehicle that runs on two Lithium battery packs which contain the same Panasonic 18650 batteries that line the bottom of the Tesla Model S and X. While a Model S contains about 7,000 of these to hit about 70-90kWh, the Gogoro’s battery packs are only 1.3kWh each (so around 100+batteries/ea) and can be exchanged in a charging bay. The 2.6kWh, according to Gogoro’s specs will take the good looking scooter about 60 miles at 60mph (0-31 in 4.2secs). While solid specs, that’s not at all what makes Gogoro a gamechanger…

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The new budget bill approved by the US Congress last week included an important extension to the 30% investment tax credit (ITC) for solar, but it also brought back the less popular (but welcomed) tax credits for electric motorcycles. Expand
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Alta Motors, formerly known as BRD Motorcycles, announced having delivered the first all-electric Redshift to customers this week.

The first lucky owners are Eric Gauthier and Jeannine Smith, who own and operate Suspension Performance in Mountain View, CA. Expand
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After a successful launch in Asia, Gogoro will now try to introduce its electric “Smartscooters” to Europe starting with Amsterdam in early 2016. You can’t buy the Gogoro’s Smartscooter anywhere because they need to be supported by the company’s network of battery swapping stations (picture above). Expand
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This week BMW’s Motorrad division unveiled an all-electric concept version of its RR motorcycle called “eRR”. The company didn’t reveal any specific information about the new concept, which it described as an “experimental vehicle” – meaning it isn’t likely to hit the market anytime soon.

But the group released the following pictures: Expand
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The 2015 Tokyo Motor Show is starting next week and several manufacturers already announced the debut of new electric vehicles, including Nissan’s Teatro and Mitsubishi’s eX, now Yamaha says it will unveil 6 new concepts, including a new two-wheel drive all-electric motorcycle and an electric car. Expand
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San Francisco-based Mission Motorcycles, a maker of high-end electric motorcycles, recently filed for bankruptcy amid financial troubles. In the filing, current CEO Mark Seeger said the company is so low on cash that it can’t afford to pay for an attorney for the bankruptcy process, but while recently talking with Reuters, former CEO Derek Kaufman dismissed the company’s lack of money and instead blamed Mission’s demise on Apple’s poaching of top engineers. Expand
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