Honda & Yamaha to be selling electric motorcycles

Not surprising that they will enter the market. Are the Chinese manufacturers going to have some competition? Or will they have them built by Mountain Chen and his Brother or other Chinese plants to their specifications? Either way, I see the price coming down and the quality going way up.

I really want a small affordable all electric sports car with moderate performance. 2 wheel vehicles of any kind with no weather protection mixing it up with crazy urban traffic doesn't work for me for a regular ride. The money you save on gas may end up going to pay medical bills or worse. Maybe if I lived in a low populated area in the country.

I'd like 2 seats, 75 MPH top end, 0-40 5 seconds, 0-60 10 seconds, 100 mile or so range. I bet Honda or Toyota could build a car like that and sell it for less than $25,000. I think enthusiasts will be able to get the stuff they need to do "new tech" electric conversions that make sense in a year or two. I am keeping an eye on new car hub motors, small AC drives, and 100 AH LIFEPO4 cells prices. I still may end up having to make my own electric sports car if no manufacturer steps up to do one. I'm afraid my creation will be crude compared to a production car though.

So far, only high end electric supercars are on their way to production, like the Tesla and ones in these links.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/06/lightning-gt-all-electric-sports-car-revealed/

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/news/electric-powered-l1x-75-sports-car-ready-for-sale/

http://www.smh.com.au/news/motors/australias-first-electric-sports-car/2008/09/05/1220857505447.html

. I think we need a "Miata" of electric sports cars, and whoever does it first will sell a million of them.

Some more information here. It looks like these electric bikes will be targeted towards the Asian and perhaps European markets, unless Americans change their opinion drastically on their performance expectations. I doubt that is going to happen anytime soon. Anyways, the article specifically cites a range of 60 miles and comparable performance to a 50cc motorcycle for Yamaha, and doesn't state specs for Honda but mentions that Honda's target is for customers such as Japan Post Service, who currently operate 90,000 49cc Honda Cubs as part of their fleet.

andys, don't forget to keep your eye out for 3-wheel vehicles that can legally be classified as motorcycles in the US, there are a number of manufacturers doing that so they don't have to sink as much money into meeting all the requirements for cars. A lot of these smaller companies don't have a ton of capital, especially with the economy these days! Anyways, the vehicle that seems to come the closest to your specs is the Aptera. In the meanwhile, don't knock electric motorcycles... they're serving as an excellent research testbed, and are actually very practical in many Asian and European cities due to the smaller streets and higher urban density.