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[Richard230]

Last weekend I attended a BMW motorcycle rally in John Day, Oregon.  While there I picked up a copy of the Spring 2014 “Ironbutt” magazine, published by the Iron Butt Association, an organization devoted to riding motorcycles as far as possible in as little time as possible just for fun – something that would not be any fun for me.  The magazine is filled with articles about riders riding across the U.S., up to Alaska, back down to Florida and visiting all 48 states within 10 days.  So I was floored when I came across a four page technical article (starting on page 58) regarding “Electric Motorcycles”.  The article was written by Tom Austin, “IBA Chief Technical Advisor”.  It reviewed the potential of electric motorcycles as high-speed long-distance traveling vehicles.  Needless to say the article was not 100% positive.

However, I thought it gave an honest review of the production electric motorcycles currently on the market, along with a fair amount of reasonable criticism mostly aimed at battery manufacturers and researchers and their power density claims that never seem to reach production.  I did get a kick out of a statement supposedly dreamed up by the automotive industry after California regulators tried to force them to manufacturer electric vehicles during the late 1990's:  “There are three kinds of liars: liars, dammed liars, and battery manufacturers”.

Probably the most interesting part of the article was an analysis comparing the number of miles you could travel within 24 hours (the most important consideration to a member of the IBA) on a motorcycle using a IC bike and an electric motorcycle with Level 1, Level 2, and CHAdeMO charging. The author concludes that you could travel 1,582 miles within 24 hours on an IC motorcycle with a 210 mile range fuel tank,  210 miles on a Zero SR in 19 hours (the remaining 5 hours being used for charging), 350 miles on a Brammo Empulse in 21 hours (Level 2 charging) and 756 miles on a Zero with the CHAdeMO charging system installed (but he says that would never happen as you could never depend upon finding a CHAdeMO charger at the end of each ride segment).

The article then goes on to discuss battery swapping (which he believes is not practical), future possible battery technology, compares vehicle costs, prospects for future electric motorcycle advancements (which he believes will continue to be limited to relatively short-range use and commuting) and various other factors that make electric motorcycles unsuitable for fast, long-distance riding.  The article concludes: “There has been significant progress in electric motorcycles in recent years, but the technology is a long, long way from being able to provide a practical motorcycle capable of being ridden what readers of this magazine would consider long distances.  There may be a niche market for electric motorcycles for use by urban commuters, but they are not now, nor likely to soon be, a cost-effective alternative to conventional, gasoline-powered motorcycles for long distance traveling.”

At the top of the last page is a sidebar titled: “Electric Motorcycle Sets Coast-to-Coast World Record” (about the Moto Electra cross-country trip).

That article is followed by an excellent technical article regarding brake fluid.

If you are interested in knowing more about this organization, you can visit www.ironbutt.com, where you may be able to order a copy of the Spring 2014 issue of their magazine and read the entire article yourself.

[Burton]

I am calling BS.

I made a fancy spreadsheet to calculate charging times / rates / hours ridden at different speeds to see just how far you could go in a day and the number given is extremely low.

If you have a 6kwh charger installed for touring and you ride 1 hour at 55mph then stop to charge for 57 minutes then rinse and repeat the rest of the day you can do over 660 miles in 24 hours. This with the stock  11.4 battery.

If you were bold enough to install a 10kwh charger , and planned out your stops to have two J1772's then you could go 1072miles by riding 1.5 hours at 55mph then stopping to charge for 54 minutes over 24 hours.  If anyone wants to check my spreadsheet's math let me know and I will duplicate it and instruct you on how to use it and where numbers come from.

Keeping in mind as well, this is all before streamlining.  If I apply a 1.5 range increase you can do the same distance in 17 hours with 10kwh charge rate or 21.6 hours with a 6kwh charger. Just saying.

[protomech]

I don't think it's BS - they're looking at production bikes available today. With a streamliner and faster AC charging you should be able to get travel times very close to gas bikes.

Reposting from Brammoforum below..



Now repeat the trip with the largest capacity Mission R. Mission Motorcycles is being a little bit cagey with the range spec, but it seems like the 17 kWh bike will do about 100 miles on the highway, only slightly farther than 12.5 kWh Zero's 88 miles.

The big difference though is the charge time: < 30 minutes to charge (likely to 80%) vs 60 minutes to charge to 95%.

Assume here that the 17 kWh Mission bike gets 100 miles at 70 mph and 140 miles at 55 mph, and charges 80% in 30 minutes.

100 miles travel: 1.43h riding @ 70 mph

Zero S - 9.4 kW discharge, 11.9 kW charge. Add 1.2h charging = 2.63h total, 38 mph average.
Mission R - 11.9 kW discharge, 27 kW charge. Add 0.63h charging = 2.06h total, 48 mph average.
Gas bike: 5 minute refuel / break every hour = 1.55h total, 65 mph average.

100 miles travel: 1.82h riding @ 55 mph

Zero S - 6.5 kW discharge, 11.9 kW charge. Add 1.0h charging = 2.82h total, 36 mph average.
Mission R - 6.7 kW discharge, 27 kW charge. Add 0.45h charging = 2.27h total, 44 mph average.
Gas bike: 5 minute refuel / break every hour = 1.97h total, 51 mph average.

At 55 mph - which is my preferred pace for pleasure riding - there's little difference in trip speed between the gas bike and the electric bike. Total 24 hour distance is about 1050 vs 1200 miles at 55 mph, or 1150 vs 1550 miles at 70 mph.

[protomech]

If you were bold enough to install a 10kwh charger , and planned out your stops to have two J1772's then you could go 1072miles by riding 1.5 hours at 55mph then stopping to charge for 54 minutes over 24 hours.  If anyone wants to check my spreadsheet's math let me know and I will duplicate it and instruct you on how to use it and where numbers come from.

Math check. 87.5 miles / (1.5 hours + 54 minutes = 2.4 hours) = 36.5 mph, * 24 hours = 875 miles

[Burton]

Yeah I realized it was wrong on the way home updating spreadsheet now

[Richard230]

This is a long and detailed article and it is hard to for me to summarize it properly, other than picking out a few comments that grabbed my attention.  Such as (in no particular order):

The author claims that wholesale prices for li-ion batteries are currently running about $500 per kWh.  At the retail level, he says Zero charges an additional $800 per kWh to increase the battery pack size on their bikes.

His calculations and accompanying graph assume all vehicles are traveling at 70 mph.

Envia Systems claims in 2012 of producing a new battery design with an energy density of 400 Wh/kg at a price of $125/kWh gets bashed as having never come to market two years after the announcement.  Envia is described as a "science fair project, not a product".

Motorcyclist and Cycle World magazines get criticized for giving the Zero and Empulse bikes more praise than they deserved in their articles reviewing the bikes.

The author states that installing a large windshield and saddlebags will noticeably decrease electric motorcycle range.  Side cases are said to easily increase the frontal area from 6 sf to 7.5 sf, increasing power requirements at 70 mph from 9.47 kW to 11.59 kW.  I don't know how large a windshield he is thinking of, but I believe we can all agree that a small to moderately sized windshield will improve streamlining compared with your body's outline.

About the only omission in the article that I noticed was the reduced cost of maintenance for electric motorcycles, compared with IC motorcycles - and for Iron Butt riders, the time it takes to maintain their bike on a long ride.

[Burton]

Ok new numbers

I redid the spreadsheet and made it simpler for this calculation only. The extra charts I had in it with range per increment and total charge left are still in the spreadsheet but I didn't need them for this calculation.

Zero 1k mile chart by callmeburton, on Flickr

I should add where the numbers came from

Watts per Hour were created based off the published range numbers from 2013 S model 11.4 assuming a nominal pack charge of 10kw
So 10kw divided by range = watts per hour. The streamlined ratio mentioned then simply divides this number by the ratio which is the same as multiplying the ratio against the advertised range and dividing the new number into 10k.

[protomech]

Just a note.. charge rate or charge power is watts or kilowatts, never watts per hour. Pack energy is watt hours (10 kWh), and you can divide capacity by a charge rate to determine time, i.e. 10 kWh / 10 kW = 1 hour, or capacity by an efficiency metric to determine range, i.e. 10 kWh / (150 Wh/mile) = 67 miles