The electric motorbike scene is so in right now, with the fourth that we’ve written about in the last two months being the Brammo Enertia. The Enertia is a plug-in bike that does 0-60 MPH in under 4 seconds and can go for up to 50 miles on one charge. Brammo is an Ashland, Oregon-based manufacturer that designed and built the bike, making sure that the bike has six 12 Volt lithium-phosphate batteries — which don’t blow up when punctured, unlike Lithium Ion models. It only weighs 275 pounds too, and most of the weight is near the road because the fuel tank isn’t needed. The only problem now is the price: $14,995 for the “Carbon” model, and $11,995 for a later model once production is ramped up.
Check out the long MSN article.
Oh and shout-out to DEV for keeping us in the loop on the electric motorcycle news.
The Enertia got a Treehug and it’s stirred up a wasps nest of comments from the Greenoratti. You can read ‘em here.
9. July 2007 at 1:28 pm
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/05/31/new-video-of-the-vectrix-electric-scooter-from-its-u-k-introduc/
electric scooter
9. July 2007 at 11:09 pm
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! I’ve been wishing I could build something just like this for years. Now instead of building it I just have to find fifteen grand…
At half that price I’d buy one in a heartbeat to handle my daily commute. Let’s hope the Enertia people sell enough units to recover from their “carbonitis.”
Carbon fiber is great stuff for an electric vehicle. Strong, yes. Light, yes. Justifies the high cost of the initial run. The Tesla roadster is also mostly carbon fiber and costs $100k. When it comes time to mass-produce the vehicle, however, carbon fiber is a stumbling block to bringing the price into a reasonable range.
10. July 2007 at 1:47 am
Cool bike. I like the idea of it. Can’t wait until electric technology gets a little better.
The Tesla is aluminum and carbon fiber, it uses the chassis of a Lotus Elise, and a number of components from it.
15. June 2008 at 6:28 pm
I agree. When prices come down a bit, this would be a great investment, but for the price of a car, which has storage and ability to transport more people in one go, it’s hard to justify the cost unless you have money lying around.