When do you expect ev bikes to become practical road bikes.

[Grimly]

Afraid of your neighbors having their own little Hindenburgs?

That could be quite devastating. Amazingly, in the UK you are allowed to service and install your own gas heating boiler, cooker, etc. However that rests on being 'competent' in the eyes of the law. As soon as your house blows up it is fairly obvious you weren't 'competent' and you've been a very naughty boy.
Otoh, I've seen some shockingly bad examples of installation work done by so-called professionals with all the right certificates.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=uk+house+gas+explosion&ia=images&iax=images

315E220900000578-3454209-image-a-41_1455886040123.jpg

[rphillips]

Yep, I retired from the natural gas distribution business. Amazing the things I've seen.

[rphillips]

I just saw where Hertz Rental is selling 20,000 EV's and going back to ICE. They stated repair cost was a big contributing factor... Surprising to me, I'd have thought repairs would have been almost non existent as they would get rid of them before the batteries go bad.

[Nessism]

I just saw where Hertz Rental is selling 20,000 EV's and going back to ICE. They stated repair cost was a big contributing factor... Surprising to me, I'd have thought repairs would have been almost non existent as they would get rid of them before the batteries go bad.

It's crash repair that are killing these. Supposedly, fixing a crashed Tesla is big money.

[Nessism]

I can't foresee a day that home owners will or should be trusted with home hydrogen fuelling.

A fair assessment, but then, gasoline refueling isn't a home thing either (for 99.99% of people, anyway.)

What I can't foresee is a time when an electric motorcycle would be anything other than an appliance. A large part of the fun of a bike is the clutch and shifting, the sound, reving out the engine. Electric vehicles can be amazingly fast, but it's NOT the same experience.

[rphillips]

Thanks; I'd not even thought of that kind of repair, just thinking mechanical, electronic sensor, and computer stuff. Would think body parts should be equal to ICE, the frame and suspension structure should be same as a light truck cause of the extra wgt. they are hauling. Ed did they explain why the crash repair cost is elevated.

[Rob S.]

A large part of the fun of a bike is the clutch and shifting, the sound, reving out the engine. Electric vehicles can be amazingly fast, but it's NOT the same experience.

Exactly. Precisely. In a nutshell.

[rphillips]

For me the same with muscle cars. Can't imagine a drag race with no noise nor odor, I'd probably doze off and sleep through it

[Rob S.]

For me the same with muscle cars. Can't imagine a drag race with no noise nor odor...

Or shifting! I know modern automatics are faster down the quarter mile. But when I see a '60's or early '70's Corvette or Camaro without a clutch pedal, it's just such a turn off.

[storm 64]

Perhaps this is more your style in a rental car?
My work friends 69 Mustang Hurtz Rent-A-Car... 20170809_184508.jpg

[dpep]

Parallel arguments were made at the end of the 19th century about traveling on a cold hard machine just not being the same experience as riding and relying upon your horse. And you know there are still a lot of people riding horses today. They even race them though the machines go much faster. The ratio of animal powered to machine powered transport has changed significantly however.

[rphillips]

Yep, most everything evolves with time, some evolve faster than others. After enough time and evolution, I'm guessing probably everybody will be buying elect. autos and motorcycles, unless maybe Hydrogen evolves quicker into something that possibly may be better than the elect. Just hoping I'm still around to see what happens.

[RichDesmond]

A fair assessment, but then, gasoline refueling isn't a home thing either (for 99.99% of people, anyway.)

What I can't foresee is a time when an electric motorcycle would be anything other than an appliance. A large part of the fun of a bike is the clutch and shifting, the sound, reving out the engine. Electric vehicles can be amazingly fast, but it's NOT the same experience.

Have you ridden one? I test rode a Zero, it was a hoot. Different than a regular bike, for sure, but still a lot of fun.

[Nessism]

Have you ridden one? I test rode a Zero, it was a hoot. Different than a regular bike, for sure, but still a lot of fun.

Never rode one. I can appreciate that an EV can be fast, and there is the "wind in your face" aspect to any two-wheel vehicle, that's pleasurable.

My kid has a Tesla 3 "performance" model. 0-60 in less than 3 seconds. It's stupid fast. Most days he commutes on his MT-07, though, for reasons I reference.

[dpep]

Thanks; I'd not even thought of that kind of repair, just thinking mechanical, electronic sensor, and computer stuff. Would think body parts should be equal to ICE, the frame and suspension structure should be same as a light truck cause of the extra wgt. they are hauling. Ed did they explain why the crash repair cost is elevated.

I was curious about that as well and searched on it. Here is a pretty informative article from CNN Buisness.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/11/business/hertz-tesla-selling/index.html

It looks like the crash repair issue may be for Tesla more so than for EV's broadly. This excerpt I think explains it in a way that makes sense.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Being a relatively new company, Tesla doesn’t have as many replacement parts at hand and trained repair technicians that other car companies have, Hertz executives have said, making it costly and time-consuming to get repairs.

Remember, in the likes of GM and other [automakers], there’s decades of establishment of a broad national parts supply network’” Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr said in a recent analyst call. “There’s an aftermarket of parts that is there, that is less mature, obviously, in the context of Tesla.”

Besides costing more to repair when they’re damaged in a crash, Scherr also said, EVs are also getting in more crashes. Again, Teslas, which make up 80% of Hertz’s EV rental fleet, are mostly the problem in both these areas, he has said.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -