[AzCal Retred]

From David Blasco @ RoyalEnfields.com
https://www.royalenfields.com/2020/12/filling-in-blanks-on-electric-royal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+royalenfields/qqMm+(Royal+Enfield+Motorcycles)
What's going on with Royal Enfield and electric motorcycles?
You can read "a detailed story rounding up every single fact that has been reported by the media here, in what is shaping up as the most exciting electric motorcycle launch early this decade."
That's according to editor Shrawan Raja of the ElectricVehicleWeb.in site. Based in Chennai, India (along with Royal Enfield), this website updates the electric vehicle scene daily, including cars as well as motorcycles. He's an engineer who proudly notes that he learned to ride a motorcycle on his dad's 1982 Royal Enfield 350.
The article he pointed out to me in an email tells what is known about Royal Enfeld's electrifying plans, based mostly on widely reported hints from executives that electric vehicles are in the works.
In the same email to me, Shrawan prodded me to pay more attention to electric Royal Enfields.
His website does exactly that.


Electric Royal Enfield ‘Photon’ has the approval of Siddhartha Lal ; May 8, 2020 2:14 pm by Bala Natarajan
https://electricvehicleweb.in/photon-electric-royal-enfield-bullet/

Definitely aim to launch our electric motorcycles in India, says Sweden’s RGNT Motorcycles ; May 20, 2020 by Bala Natarajan
https://electricvehicleweb.in/aim-to-launch-electric-motorcycles-in-india-rgnt-motorcycles/

Homemade Royal Enfield Electric Bike ‘Charging Bullet’ has done 13,600 km ; September 26, 2020 by Shrawan Raja
https://electricvehicleweb.in/electric-royal-enfield-fred-spaven/
Fred Spaven, a mechanical engineer from the United Kingdom with a passion for all things automotive, especially anything unusual – built a ‘Charging Bullet’ – restored from a 1961 make 350 Bullet – a model made at the Royal Enfield Redditch factory in its final years.
Spaven is no stranger to adventure travel, having previously taken a Skoda to Mongolia, a BSA Bantam to south Italy, a train to Singapore and circumnavigated Yorkshire in a Reliant Robin. On his E-Bullet, Spaven travelled the entire length of Britain from Lands End to John O’Groats. Following a career in superconductivity research, Spaven decided to follow his real interest to set up Spaven Engineering and specialise in the restoration and modification of classic cars and motorcycles.

E-Bullet: A Tribute to Royal Enfield by Hound Electric ; August 5, 2020 by Shrawan Raja
https://electricvehicleweb.in/e-bullet-royal-enfield-electric-bike-by-hound-electric/

[Arschloch]

Definitely aim to launch our electric motorcycles in India, says Sweden’s RGNT Motorcycles ; May 20, 2020 by Bala Natarajan
https://electricvehicleweb.in/aim-to-launch-electric-motorcycles-in-india-rgnt-motorcycles/

Hahahaha..you know if someone makes something like that in their garage all respects for that.

Commercial garbage however like that can only come from Sweden. Just throw that 10kg of unsprung mass chinese electric motor right in the middle of that wheel. 

10500€ for awesome 11kW of electric power, that's got to be a super hit on the market. Now I know where my money went.

These folks need to get mandatory vaccination.

[AzCal Retred]

The batteries are always the sticking point. Lead-acid is about 200 pounds per 1 gallon of gasoline stored energy equivalent. Even the magic lithiums are I think about 150 pounds/gal. stored energy equivalent. So that makes for a very heavy machine if you are planning to go 150-200 miles at a crack. Then there is the recharge delay when you get there. Batteries don't much like cold weather either, as their ion producing chemical reactions are temperature dependent. For 5-15 mile round trip functions in town they do well, useful open road use isn't there yet. Chemical fuel engines will rule for any foreseeable time.

The "Wheel-Motors" are very clever, but as you pointed out they don't do much for handling. Unless battery tech has a magical breakthrough Electric Motorcycles are doomed to be either curious toys or nice "grocery getter" Lambretta-like scooters, IMHO. For that yeoman function there are many "4-wheel pod" machines already available that don't fall over when stopped; always a good sales feature in Sun City...

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/surprise/2014/08/14/golf-carts-rule-roads-sun-city/14095291/
https://www.newsbreak.com/arizona/green-valley/news/2056714597139/man-thrown-from-golf-cart-in-crash
https://thegolfnewsnet.com/golfnewsnetteam/2017/08/03/fastest-golf-cart-planet-speed-game-106248/

[Nitrowing]

I've driven the Nissan Leaf and Tesla S75 and whilst they may deliver unparalleled torque, the weight was always evident.
Where an electric bike would win, hands down, is the charging. I live in a terraced street - I keep my bikes in the house, which means I'd have no problem with plugging a bike in. The cars? If I actually get to park in front of my house, I have to run a cable across the footpath...

I can't see the benefit of actually riding an electric bike. Very limited range, much heavier, long recharge time and, in the event of it refusing to run, where do you start 'fixing' it???

[Arschloch]

Electric Vespa might well be ok for some people's needs. I don't know if there is still a helmet storage under the seat though.

[AzCal Retred]

Re" Nitrowing @ # 3:
"I can't see the benefit of actually riding an electric bike. Very limited range, much heavier, long recharge time and, in the event of it refusing to run, where do you start 'fixing' it???"

Well the pure, unadulterated glory that comes with being the guy advertising to everyone within eye-shot that they are single-handedly "Saving the Urth" must not be that high up on your life list! 
As far as fixing it, as with all electronic computer driven wonder-machines, " Nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...". There's always the friendly dealer with the minimum-wage part-time teenager in the shop in the back, right?

Anyway, most electro-gizmos now are pretty bullet proof. A plug-in, around the neighborhood, to the corner grocery store blaster could be fun if it doesn't break the bank.

[Nitrowing]

Re" Nitrowing @ # 3:
"I can't see the benefit of actually riding an electric bike. Very limited range, much heavier, long recharge time and, in the event of it refusing to run, where do you start 'fixing' it???"

Well the pure, unadulterated glory that comes with being the guy advertising to everyone within eye-shot that they are single-handedly "Saving the Urth" must not be that high up on your life list! 
As far as fixing it, as with all electronic computer driven wonder-machines, " Nothing can go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...". There's always the friendly dealer with the minimum-wage part-time teenager in the shop in the back, right?

Anyway, most electro-gizmos now are pretty bullet proof. A plug-in, around the neighborhood, to the corner grocery store blaster could be fun if it doesn't break the bank.

Obviously, being the ultra-righteous uberhipster with the only electric bike on the block would be enough gratification 

Paying for one though... the Nissan Leaf is £30k... the Tesla £60k...
I tend to buy around the £1k mark, knowing I can get a decent machine with at least a decade of riding left in it!

[axman88]

Electric bikes are already hugely popular in those parts of the world with strong bicycling cultures.  Look at all the different players already in the marketplace in one such country:  https://easyebiking.com/top-trusted-e-bike-brands-in-the-netherlands/

Not everybody wants or needs to go fast or far.  54% of the world now lives in urban areas.  E-biking can be quite practical, even with existing technology, if capabilities align with requirements.

There's even one for dogs:  https://www.babboecargobike.com/cargo-bikes/dog-electric-1359

[Arschloch]

A nice idea, the minor issue is if you don't own it, you don't care about it. Here a superb example how to cash in gov. subsidies and leave the city littered with dysfunctional scrap that you at the end can't even auction out. So much to Zero maintenance requirements on the electric bikes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBike

After this debacle state of sweden was giving huge discounts to the private buyers so that only people purchase one that need or want one. Guess how many bought into it in comparison to those rental companies.

[Richard230]

A nice idea, the minor issue is if you don't own it, you don't care about it. Here a superb example how to cash in gov. subsidies and leave the city littered with dysfunctional scrap that you at the end can't even auction out. So much to Zero maintenance requirements on the electric bikes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBike

After this debacle state of sweden was giving huge discounts to the private buyers so that only people purchase one that need or want one. Guess how many bought into it in comparison to those rental companies.

Alternately you can do what California and some other "first-world" countries are doing and just mandate people buy electric by not allowing the sale of gas or diesel powered vehicles within 10 or 15 years.   

[Arschloch]

Alternately you can do what California and some other "first-world" countries are doing and just mandate people buy electric by not allowing the sale of gas or diesel powered vehicles within 10 or 15 years.   

That's of course a great idea. 

Mr. Volvo is begging for it...

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/electric-cars/car-industry-must-commit-fully-electric-vehicles-says-volvo-boss

...subsequently he has been named the world car person of the year 2018 by the Arabmotorworld. 

http://arabmotorworld.com/volvo-cars-ceo-hakan-samuelsson-named-2018-world-car-person-year/

....note, he is clearly a good observer with years of business experience which is why he compares cars with phones. ?!?

[AzCal Retred]

" Alternately you can do what California and some other "first-world" countries are doing and just mandate people buy electric by not allowing the sale of gas or diesel powered vehicles within 10 or 15 years. " 
Well, since a week or month is an eternity in Political time, it seems highly doubtful that thinking about eliminating 95% of everyone's personal transportation will play out in the real world. People vote their interests. 10 years away is an eternity. You'd have to have some savage buy-in to make that happen. Right now people won't even wear masks to protect their own health in the middle of an outbreak, so...?

"A nice idea, the minor issue is if you don't own it, you don't care about it. Here a superb example how to cash in gov. subsidies and leave the city littered with dysfunctional scrap that you at the end can't even auction out. So much to Zero maintenance requirements on the electric bikes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBike
After this debacle state of sweden was giving huge discounts to the private buyers so that only people purchase one that need or want one. Guess how many bought into it in comparison to those rental companies."
No citations validating either highlighted claim. Obike from the reference supplied was apparently a private company using their own capital, just granted permission to operate. No mention of subsidies. Not a word about Swedish people being offer privately owned hardware to purchase from their Government either. Both of these things may have indeed happened, but from the source cited those dogs don't hunt. Most of Obike's problems stemmed from vandalism. But I certainly can't argue with the statement you made "if you don't own it, you don't care about it". Cite sources for your claims or else it's just entertaining noise, not useful information. Do the work if it's important to you.

[Arschloch]

https://www.treehugger.com/sweden-offers-subsidy-electric-bike-purchases-4857202

...ok, it was a minor subsidy on any e-bike.

some more useful info on that bike sharing dilemma, note the bikes were as well used to track the cyclist and some of the data is accessible freely online. Wow

http://ebma-brussels.eu/bike-sharing-in-europe/

...last place I would want to live is one of those smart cities where all your movement is tracked, they can keep that in Stockholm where everyone is scared of everyone.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_city

[AzCal Retred]

Thanks for those! I'm onboard about the smart cities. Beijing would really creep me out.
I appreciate the citation effort, & looking forward to more electronics ideas on that GT of yours. - ACR -

[Arschloch]

Thanks for those! I'm onboard about the smart cities. Beijing would really creep me out.
I appreciate the citation effort, & looking forward to more electronics ideas on that GT of yours. - ACR -

Imagine what a dear fellow citizen can do that is in charge of that control, they are all honorable law abiding citizens. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_policing

predictive policing, everyone has the potential to do anything.  ...the perfect invisible jail, can be used to make you things you normally would not maybe too. I'm sure it can.

My GT has about all the electronic equipment it will ever need. A little navigator like on the Meteor sounds acceptable. I'm not to keen on taking phone calls while on the bike.