Image: Audin
Okay, they won’t be your grandpa’s old 50cc Super Cub like you see in the picture, but Honda and Yamaha are both planning battery electric motorcycles that will have the performance of their current 50cc bikes without using a drop of gasoline.
Yamaha plans to release their bike in 2010, which seems to be the year of the electric car already. Details are scarce, but the bike should have an impressive 62 mile range, and will probably cost a pretty penny compared to its gasoline-powered counterparts.
Honda, on the other hand, will be releasing their bike in 2011 with a target range on 31 miles. They are hoping that the Japanese post office and other fleets that do deliveries will take to the electric bikes in order to reduce costs and pollution associated with shipping.
Details are scarce, but we’ll keep you updated. Would you buy one?
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50cc equivalents??? That’s a tiny scooter or a moped. I can’t imagine that would be very useful or worthwhile. The current scooters are getting 85mpg and are much more powerful. To call anything a motorcycle that has the few horsepower a 50cc engine can eek out is ridiculous. They could make electric skateboards with more power…
Dang, only 31 miles on a charge? I currently ride my Honda Ruckus 26 miles to work every day, so I’d have to charge when I get there.
I wonder how long it would take to charge, and if I could talk them into letting me do it… hmm…
Also, what kind of battery technology would be anywhere near cost-effective? When the battery wears out, a replacement would almost certainly negate the savings over a current 100MPG Ruckus.
Plus, they better not design it to go anything less than 40 MPH.
it’s a start, cars weren’t as fast as they are nowadays, if this makes a better world for us we should support it.
it’s a start and we should support those kind of ideas.