BMW Electric scoot

[MrGrumpy]

It says in MCN that BMW are now releasing their electric scoot. £13,500 265kg with a 60 mile range. ouch.

[smeghead]

Ouch indeed. I don't want to come over all luddite but I fail to understand electric vehicles, apart from airport trollies, milk floats and other commercial stuff like fork trucks. They are invariably heavy, expensive and have a very limited range. I also fail to understand why they are given special dispensation regarding the CO2 output when in reality all they do is shift the problem somewhere else ie the power-station making the electricity in the first place. The manufacture and inevitable replacement, therefore disposal, of the batteries must be an environmental nightmare. Maybe I can be enlightened by someone.

[StephenC]

Well, if I were already prepared to pay £10k for a BMW scoot, then this could actually make sense.

I do 27 miles each way commute, garaged with plug-ins available at each end. I keep my scoots for 2 years and do 11k miles annually.

Fuel costs are nominal or nowt. Fuel for the 650GT doing what, 55mpg? would be about £1200 a year. Servicing costs should be minimal in comparison to a 650GT, being pretty much limited to brakes (albeit lighter use due to regen) and tyres (normal usage) so I would guess that over the two years I would break even. The leccy one will arguably depreciate more, although this is of course totally unknown and may not even be the case if the bike remains rare (at £13k it surely will!). On top of that, the end result of bikers bleating about VED cost for bikes versus cars will inevitably be a VED calculation based on bike emissions which the milkfloat powered machine would win out on by comparison.

But this is just money. I would actually be very happy to not contribute to emissions in central London, as there is a real problem there. There has even been talk of creating a zero-emission zone in the very centre, which is where I work. I also quite like the idea of the wicked acceleration off the line when max torque is available from zero, instead of waiting for the infernal combustion lump to hit 5k revs or so.

Now I get it that this scenario won't work for a lot of scooteristas, but you have to accept that for some it will be attractive. Such that a financial penalty would even be irrelevant. I also point you in the direction of China where electric 'peds are the norm nowadays.


So my conclusion is: it is a viable machine and there will be a few - not many, grant you - who will buy them.

[Bluebottle]

@Smeghaed
I've owned, ridden and messed about with electric bikes and worked on electric vehicles/aircraft (not on the battery/motor side )
My bikes weren't mainstream models which do tend to be expensive.

The one I have at the moment cost £1,500 new, so it wasn't expensive
It weighs what my 125 petrol did, so I wouldn't call it heavy
The batteries are solid state lead so the main elements are just reformed and reused, the waste is inert so there is only the lead handling to worry about.
It doesn't have the hazardous and hard to obtain rare earth metals.
There is no hazardous used oil or coolant

Yes the power is generated somewhere, but an electric motor is far more efficient than a petrol engin so you don't need as much power to cover the same distance.
If you have the space a small wind turbine or photo unit can power the charger.

If I still commuted 20 odd miles a day an electric bike would be my main means of transport.

I put a meter on the charger at work and showed my employer that it cost 2.5p to top up at work so they were happy for me to plug in any time. It didn't really need it. I think I ran up a 6p charge one day after running several errands.

I probably have the actual charge/cost per mile somewhere, I kept figures for a while - it was a fraction of a penny per mile and no engine service costs or belts/pulleys

The saving in travel/fuel paid for the bike in about 18 months, but like I say I didn't pay BMW prices

Like StephenC says, electrics take off from stand still like a bat out of hell. Production versions have a controller to limit the torque at low speed. Some amateur builds have direct throttle control and you have to be really careful feeding the initial throttle in

[MrGrumpy]

I have toyed with the idea of an electric scoot for my commute, which is only 5 miles each way (having the Bev 350 is a mite extravagant for it I know!). It makes perfect sense running cost wise, but the purchase cost puts me off, cos if you want one that has a decent top speed (my short route has a dual carriageway on it), then they cost something iro £5K or more - the Vectrix was £6K. In comparison, the Bev cost me £2500 secondhand, and the £2500 saved is a lot of petrol.
And there's always the question of how many recharge cycles the batteries will take.

[bikerdezzie]

I would rather have an electric bicycle, most have a 20mile range, or you can retro fit a system to a standard pushbike, I was going to do this to my beach cruiser bike but am skint!

[michaelphillips]

i am not sure who makes these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Scoo ... 3ce0acc712" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yet 30mph good bye though

every now and again a 5000w or 4000w vectrix like scooter comes on ebay , there chinese ones but good value at a grand

i posted theres a geezer with a retro fitted push bike that was doing over 30mph uphill while im on a scool run i see him wizzing by. He is Deadly and quiet and filters very very fast... id have something flicking the back wheel for sound like when he did when we were kids

[gn2]

An electric scoot would suit me perfectly if it could get me to work and back (54 miles) at similar speeds to a 300cc petrol scoot.
Maybe in three years time there will be something with that capability at a reasonable price.

[smeghead]

I suppose for a commute they would be ok but what do you do when you fancy fish and chips at Scarborough?

[michaelphillips]

I suppose for a commute they would be ok but what do you do when you fancy fish and chips at Scarborough?

get it delivered