Hi All,
Here's what I expect we've all been through with our electric motor scooters - and what those of you who are about to get Z-20s (or XMs) will likely experience too:
1) Scooter turns up
2) Lots of posts on the board about how they were worth the wait and are fantastic (the "EV Grin" phenomena)
3) Stupid little stuff will start going wrong and the wholesaler/supplier won't have the bandwidth to offer good customer support
4) At first folks will cut them some slack
5) People will start getting pissed at supplier
6) Batteries will start failing - supplier will say "tough sh*t"
7) People will get mad
Then one of two things will happen:
A) People will remain mad and decide that the scooter or the company that sold it to them are the problem
B) People will decide that what they have is an eighty or ninety percent solution and will figure out a way to close that last ten or twenty percent gap. Most folks who fall into this category will be vary capable of filling the gap and will likely become happy.
It's not just the XM crowd that will go through this.
I post this for two reasons:
1) To encourage folks to stick with it and get to point (B). Folks who have accepted help along the way have got to (B) quicker than folks who haven't accepted help.
2) To have an "historical public record" so that I can say to my friends here on the board - see I said this would happen with the Z-20... ;-) ego is a terrible thing - but we've all got one you know!
I think you nailed it.
What we also need is the scooter manufacturer lifecycle. Simply put either EVT America will either crash and burn or get better and better. This is Yugo versus Honda. And if any of you ever drove a 1970's Honda (a glorified motorcycle with a 2 atom thick layer of sheet metal over it) it was never clear they were going to make it either.
"we must be the change we wish to see in the world"
What is sad is that there seems to be a lot of people here that sound like they want EVT AMERICA to fail or put out a bad product so that they can say "I TOLD YOU SO" I am really hoping that they are different and make it so that they can set an example or a standard for other EV companies to follow. Right now Vectix is much too expensive for most users here. EVT America to me seems to be trying to do what the other companies never did. At least they are communicating with their customers. Now hopefully their product and their customer service will also be much better than their competition. God Bless :)
Personally I don't hope EVTA will fail. However, the odds are far greater that they will fail than they will become the next Honda or Vectrix. But good luck to 'em. Good luck to DanCar as well with his EFun venture.
The reason the Vectrix is so expensive is because they're about the only folks out there that offer the complete package - dealers, servicing, marketing, unique product design, high quality manufacturing to name but a few. So they need to recoup all that expenditure.
All I am attempting to do is to be realistic - because there's a certain amount of wishful thinking that goes on and that might end up discouraging people when the bubble bursts. Forewarned is forearmed and all that jazz...
John H. Founder of Current Motor Company - opinions on this site belong to me; not to my employer
Remember: " 'lectric for local. diesel for distance" - JTH, Amp Bros || "No Gas.
John, Agreed!
The divergent experiences of people like me and Keith Mullee versus Jason in NC regarding the e-max comes to mind. Unfortunately, when you buy one of these Chinese e-scooters you need to also be a bit of a tinkerer or become one.
But, the final step in the ownership cycle may still be coming our way. With the low dollar and the price of metals staying up there, the cost of the higher-quality batteries is really hurting the economics of ownership. A replacement pack of for my e-max, counting the booster battery is now at least $600 not counting shipping. For five good quality 50AH batteries, it is in the $900's. So the final stage may be retirement of the scooter until the economics of ownership improves.
...BUT, the odd thing is, I've read reports that e-scooters now outnumber gas scooters in Shanghai and other big Chinese cities. If this is the case, they surely must be _much_ better quality and much cheaper over there.
Hi PJD,
Which 50AH batteries are you referring to that will fit in our Emax scooters ?? Thanks for any info. God Bless :)
I was referring to e-scooters in general. The EVT's, and some others use four 50 AH batteries, like the BB EB50-12's.
The e-max battery box dimensions and frame width seem designed to defy using anything but the stock battery arrangement. The only improvement I can think of is using BB HR22-12's instead of the EB20-12's. (both being the same dimension) But you might sacrifice some cycle life.
PJD,
However, to counter the higher cost of SLAs (and NiMHs?) the price of LiFe's are coming down. LiFe's typically have greater than 1000 life cycles - about twice SLAs? So LiFe's are certainly starting to look more economical. However, as with the early days of any new technology there's going to be a wide variation in cost and quality - until things settle down.
I fully expect that the next set of batteries that I put in my XM2K will be Lithium based - not lead.
Long live the type B's... ;-)
John H. Founder of Current Motor Company - opinions on this site belong to me; not to my employer
Remember: " 'lectric for local. diesel for distance" - JTH, Amp Bros || "No Gas.