A lot of inner-city scooter in China are eletric, max speed of about 40Kph and will get you about 30 miles.. all for about 3000RNB (£300).

$11k means at least £14k here...way to much for a toy...so is £7k ( which buys you a brand new Toyota 4x4 in India [see Innova]), or even £700, which buys you a decent 100mph Jap motorbike in India...so wait till the ebikes can do 100mph and cost £250

Nice to see - I've been looking at electric bike conversion projects, but most of them only have a range of a dozen miles, which would just get me to work but not back again. Forty miles is enough for a full round trip plus detours.

Shame about the top speed though. It will most likely crawl up hills (and where I live is hilly), and I would be very nervous about going on the freeway if I can't get well above 55.

At that price, I trust it comes complete with a chauffeur...

The Ego Street Scooter can give 30mph for 40 miles - 50 mins for a 30 miles tri[ vs 40 mins for the same trip...

And Ego costs 1k minus any vouchers you have lying about minus any cashback you might get...

AND you can mod it for more oomph/Distance if you feel brave....

That said - its nice to see these products surfacing and looking good.

Must be spinning in his grave!

The Ego will not take you 40 miles, and certainly not at 30 mph the whole way.

Most of the importers of these Chinese electric scooters are optimistic about the range. They seem to take the specs at face value, and unlike for cars, there's no standardised rolling road test for making fair comparisons.

I bought a cytronex about 8 months ago.

converted trex bike.

gets about 20 miles to a charge (with me cycling)

I now cycle nearly everywhere locally rather than use the car and have just rung up my 400th mile.

And it's a british company.

stu

3.1kwh battery, 500 full charge/discharge cycles to be knackered, assume 3x better efficiency of leccy tech and you are left with the equivalent of about 135 gallons of petrol saved.

With the price of the thing do you think you will get a replacement battery for the cost of 135 gallons of petrol? You won't break even on battery costs never mind recover the cost of the rest of it and that is ignoring the cost of electricity and the horrendous tax on petrol which if leccy tech ever caught on you would be forced to pay somewhere else.

The most fuel efficient IC vehicles on the planet are small petrol scooters. They are also startlingly cheap (almost everywhere except the UK) having become almost a commodity. So where is the sense in trying to them with an electric equivalent costing many many times as much and probably doing more harm to the environment in its manufacture?

It's the gas guzzlers that leccy tech should be targetting not the fuel efficient vehicles.

Front and rear seem oddly similar to a Buell Blast 500cc-may use off-the shelf components. A shame that the performance is currently that of a 50cc vespa, combined with the price of a full touring bike.

That said, I think this is a great first step, and hope that others will follow with improved performance.

Yes, I'm a biker why do you ask?

An interesting product although I think Brammo's apparent choice of Black&Decker styling is a mistake.

When it eventually comes to the UK market will it be available in right-hand drive?

what category is this? do i need a license in UK, or the basic "2yr test license" or a full one? cheers, bob

I was sort of with you until that last sentence.

Looking good?! It's true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think you may have put your contacts in backwards this morning.

The leccy vehicle industry seems to be suffering from the same disease that infected the British kit car industry for many years. I can't decide if they thing the eyesores they produce are actually attractive or if they think that they have to look so extremely ugly in order to impress upon the buying public that they are in some way different. At least the kit car industry had the excuse that by and large it had no money to employ stylists. It certainly didn't make the sort of profits required to pay for them being, as it was, a cottage industry for the most part.

I think the leccy vehicle industry needs to realise that the best thing it can do is make it's vehicles look normal. The car buyer in largely a conservative animal and electric power is a big enough change on it's own without throwing in bizarre styling too. The average Ford Focus owner might be happy to buy and electric Ford Focus, they would probably balk at the idea of something styled like the bastard offspring of a praying mantis and Bernard Manning.

Unless of course all these leccy car builders are just trying to make a name for themselves in the hopes that one of the motoring giants will buy them out for their technology. It probably sounded like a good investment strategy until the world's vehicle industry found itself in the hole it's in now. Most car makers would currently find it hard to raise the price of a pint without having to go cap in hand to their government.

Muddersickles being even more of a luxury item I bet most bike makers are really feeling the pinch.

I used a 400cc motorcycle for about 10 years for my commute to work of about 12km. An electric assist bicycle would be almost as quick, maybe 10 minutes longer using a bike route (I've also biked to work), but far cheaper due to purchase price and insurance and licensing requirements. My commute is entirely urban. The motorcycle uses only about 1litre per day, so this electric alternative loses out by purchase cost, probably is no cheaper on running cost when you recharge it, and no cheaper over 8 years on maintenance after you replace the battery pack.

...the styling makes it look like my Dyson's long-lost cousin.

There was a recent article in Two Wheels here in Australia by Cameron Donald, competitive Australian Contender in the Isle Of Mann, where he was hooning around on a Stealth Bomber (see http://www.stealthelectricbikes.com.au/ for a shot of him in action). I've spoken with the manufacturer who reckons he had to prise it back out of Camerons hands, it was that much fun. At present, best way to get the extended range out of e-bikes is to keep a set of pedals on the things for primary propulsion, use the motor as an assist. Regulatory frameworks just haven't kept pace with the potential category though, makes it tricky to get them legal for on road use with a ridiculous ceiling limit of 200W motor output in Aust + other places..

And yes, I ride both the powered and non-powered alternatives..

...i'd consider it, at least as a way of "borrowing" leccy from my enployer :-)

They'd prolly tax this as benefit in kind eventually, though

which could do anything (speed, range, acceleration, looks) better than this one, cost 3000 Euro equivalents and was a pretty decent dirtbike for its time.

Now I have a Suzuki DRZ400 which can do the same as the XT, cost 6000 Euros, is 10% heavier and an barely sufficient dirtbike.

In future I am supposed to ride something like *that*?

What the hell is wrong with the motorcyle industry?

Czech lager, please, lots of it.

Crap if your gonna spend 11k Buy a real motorbike.....

Oh and if your the tree hugging save the whales tofu munching vegan hippy, buy a 50cc scooter it will cost you less and you can donate the balance to the save the fucking whales or the like.....

mmmmm Tofu.... its not that bad once its been basted in a nice meaty dead animal, sorry hidiously murdered dead animal sauce LOL

Well, he might be, except he's not dead.

A 2009 Honda CBF 125 (which I'd see as a competitor) will do 70mph with only 11bhp, plus get 100mpg if Honda can be believed. It's also available second hand for about £2k.

I agree that 'leccy vehicle designers have to get over the whole "bleep bleep, I'm an elcrical thing from the FUTURE" message and make bikes and vehicles that look like existing ones if they want this to go mass market. Tesla have the right idea with their Model S.

Badgers indeed.

Looked at this, more sensible price, but, they can't even guarantee the battery for a year.

Battery guarantee is 8 months or 3000km which at their no doubt exaggerated range claim is about 50 charge/discharge cycles. Would you buy a vehicle where the most expensive component needs to be replaced 2 or 3 times more often than the oil in a conventional car?

Batteries are really expensive (financially and environmentally) low density energy containers which need frequent replacement. A tin can to hold chemical energy is vastly cheaper, lasts for ever and has much higher energy density. We have been developing and trying to make better batteries for decades, there are no revolutions just round the corner.

Leccy vehicles are doomed to niche markets which can put up with their limitations and benefit from irrational tax breaks.