Hi all, I have been lurking while soaking up the information so kindly posted here .. Thanks for everyone's contributions, first off.
I am trying to find the ideal electric moped/scooter for a 5-mile roundtrip commute in Roanoke, Virginia (fairly hilly) -- I have to do it in uniform, all hours of the day & night, in any weather year-round, or I'd just ride my bicycle. (I've worked in the bike business for 20 years, now driving public transport for a change of pace.) I have between $1000 and $2000 to spend, wouldn't mind spending less at first since I am sure I could sell whatever I got for enough to upgrade later if I didn't completely wreck the thing; it's got to have full splash coverage for my uniform (I plan on adding a small windshield to whatever I get) and really don't care about range or speed, as long as it will do 20 miles and top out around 20-25mph. I got to this forum by looking into things like the Kaishan K500W (hard to find) and the X-treme XBs (too many negative reviews), was heartbroken to find out the Oxygen Lepton is out of production, and now am intrigued by the Zero Emission Motors Retro (600W, $1100) and Volt (1500W, $1800). Anyone actually seen these, preferably had some seat time & seen the QC?
URLs to these are:
http://www.zeroemotor.com/retro.html
http://www.zeroemotor.com/volt-holiday-package.html
In particular, whaddyall think about the relative motor wattages/battery amps for a 220lb bus driver trying to get up (and down) a couple 5%, quarter-mile hills on the way to work? How about the brakes?
Thanks in advance, Ted Gates
Has anyone seen/got experience with Zero Emission Motors "Retro" and/or "Volt"?
Sat, 04/04/2009 - 13:43
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Has anyone seen/got experience with Zero Emission Motors "Retro" and/or "Volt"?
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Hi, welcome to the site!!
Just took a look at this scooter you found. I believe their range quotation is inflated, and maybe their speed quotation is also inflated.
This looks somewhat like the EVT 4000 I have, mine has a 1500w motor & controller and does 30. Further mine has a 48v50ah battery pack and with fresh batteries does 25 miles. I don't see how they can claim with a straight face that a weaker motor and less than half the battery capacity can do anything like the speed and range they're quoting. Especially with hills.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
I sort of figured that any claims for speed/range would require many grains of salt, especially since the fine print reads "depending on total load" ... The Volt does also look identical to several other 1500W scoots with SLA batts in a 48V, mid-30s A/h rating. I'm actually leaning toward the Retro, which seems like it would allow more legroom and be amenable to mods, even though the lower wattage motor and batteries would keep me hunting routes using quiet side streets or with shoulders/bike lanes. (Also, its lower speed probably means less hassle from the boys in blue, who are usually pretty lenient with gas scooter riders as long as they have the city-mandated plate, helmet and don't ride obnoxiously.) The idea would be to get used to the whole scooter experience with a lower-cost initial machine -- after many years of riding astride bicycles and motorcycles, I may need some seat time to get used to steering with my legs together -- and then pass it along for half the price after a year or so and buy the real thing, like the new Oxygen moped which may become available on this side of the pond eventually. It may just be prejudice from being around the bicycle business for decades, but I'd always rather have a European product than an Asian one. While I'm at it, has anyone heard about the next-gen Oxygen becoming available Stateside? I have yet to get a reply to my e-mail to Oxygen Italy.
That's a pretty good strategy.
And that bike may do the range you really need (5 mile commute) so long as you can arrange for charging at your destination.
BTW your question is reminding me of http://www.alibaba.com and some similar websites. They are B-2-B sites showing the available exports from China, India and elsewhere. Primarily China. It's a great view into the whole offshoring phenomena. In any case the point is if you search for "electric scooter" or "electric bicycle" or "electric motorcycle" on that site you'll see the hundreds of makers in china of those things. The specs on the one you show are pretty typical for these listings. It makes me wonder, obviously the 500w electric scooter is pretty widely available in China. To me those would be underpowered but given that so many are available from Chinese makers that indicates they're widely used so somehow the people in China are accepting and using such low powered scooters.
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
From the little I have seen of the massive use in all Chinese cities of what we car-addled Americans would term "alternative transportation", maybe they don't need 25mph/40kph + speeds since there are not that many cars threatening their safety .. Anybody remember that scene near the end of "The Last Emperor" of about a zillion single-speed bikes lined up at the traffic light in Shanghai? Or how about these pics I sourced off a quick Google search --
I'll betcha that guy on the pedicab with 200+ kg of cargo isn't going at any great rate ..
Must be nice. I was a D.C. messenger for many winters (when the money was good, before 9/11) and regularly had to cross town with a full paperbox in my bag and another under my arm, seeing death about every half-block.
Anyway, thanks again for the feedback .. TG
If you can find a 150cc/250cc gasoline scooter with a fried engine, you will get much more bang for your buck by converting that to an EV rather than buying an EV-scooter.
Here's a good example of a small motorcycle conversion that is much what I'm talking about. The easiest conversions involve a rear swing-arm that is long enough that you can mount an electric motor (ETEK/PMG/PERM) on top of the swing-arm in-between the pivot and the rear wheel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7wid_8k_7k
Update on the "Retro" scooter, which interestingly enough seems to be either a knockoff of or built on the chassis of a Yamaha C3 gas scoot, for anyone who liked (as I did) the increased legroom ... The exact same thing is available from www.scootersnbikes.com (http://www.scootersnbikes.com/nh-600.html) for $200 less. Since Zero Emission Motors also has X-Treme stuff on their site, and an e-mail from them said that they only sold complete units (no parts) I am assuming they are basically a commission-based sale referral site. They shoulda Photoshopped the "Thompson" logo off their pic of the scooter ...
But no matter -- the young lady that I share my life with voted "no" on the scootering-to-work idea, so I'm now hunting private-party auto loans to finance Wilderness EV converting a '70s Bug for me. They have quoted $4500ish for the complete, turn-a-key vehicle, and I have shipping quotes from Utah to my home in Virginia of $8-900, so wish me luck, all ... Once I get all the money together, I'll turn to the wisdom here for advice on battery management.
Ted Gates