Electric scooters

**davereid** · 6th August 2006, 17:49

Or you could just buy them for $1500 by going to Nelson
http://www.escooter.co.nz/scooters.htm

But if you factor in the cost of batteries they are still more expensive to run than petrol.

Say daily charge, life = about 1 year or say 2000km @ $400 = 0.20 c/km - you may as well drive the V8.

**notme** · 6th August 2006, 18:13

Hadn't seen that site before, though the importer reckons he has.
Interesting, but I think the guy with the ones my work is servicing is aiming at a higher end of the market.

Notice that the $1500 one you mention has a lower top speed, lesser range, 1/4 the motor power and twice the charging time of the EVT models.....with half the warranty period!

**notme** · 6th August 2006, 18:27

Originally Posted by davereid

.............But if you factor in the cost of batteries they are still more expensive to run than petrol.

Say daily charge, life = about 1 year or say 2000km @ $400 = 0.20 c/km - you may as well drive the V8.

Nope, sorry mate, I think you forgot to carry the 5 or something!

If you run the thing till it's flat once per day, every day for a year, that's 365 cycles you get out of the battery, and it would probably be time to replace yer batts.

So, over one year, you get 365 x 50km = 18,250km.
A set of batteries will cost around $400, so your batteries cost you $400 / 18250 = $0.022 per km (I rounded it UP.....)
So if we add that to the running cost of $0.005 per km, we end up with the grand total of $0.077 per km....or three quarters of a cent per km.....

**davereid** · 6th August 2006, 18:27

Yeah the Nelson one claim to have brushless motors. So in theory they will have better efficiency, at least at low speed. At high speed brusless motors are no better, may even be a little less efficient. And I bet the mosfet/microprocesser controller in the brushless motor costd more to replace than a pair of brushes !

For my money I'd get a 2-stroke 50 ! Cheaper to buy, debatably more expensive to run, but a battery drill, a spanner and a pair of side cutters double the power output, and if you feed it with synthetic oil you'll get sick of it before you wear it out.

**davereid** · 6th August 2006, 18:31

Yeah, if you do more miles, then the figures get better for electric. Of course batteries are not like petrol. Batteries get Sad.. they still work... but dont work well. Petrol just stops ya dead when ya run out !

**notme** · 6th August 2006, 18:36

Jeez...no sooner do I finish typing than I get a reply from the importer:

"Yes, I already knew about these things. They are and not of very high quality. Plastic bushes instead of bearings, no disc brakes, very limited motor power and cheapo batteries. The guy imports them direct, so there is no middle man, hence low prices. But like anything, you get what you pay for...."

Also as an interesting aside, the EVT scooters are going for $5k in Aussie....

**davereid** · 6th August 2006, 18:46

Actually I stick by my figures for low mileage usage running costs. I looked at 2000 km a year a bit randomly - its about 5-6 km a day, perhaps a bit low for Auckland - but pretty realistic for a lot of provincial towns and cities.

I also must say I can't comment on the quality or reliability of either brand - I have only seen the web sites never an actual machine !

**marty** · 6th August 2006, 19:13

Originally Posted by renegade master

One of those electric scooters costs more than my 1000cc bike! ive spent the diffence on gas though (first time i filled up!hehe)

But there is an electric bike i saw in a bike mag, its a rock climber/stunt, light weight and HEAPS of tq make it much better than the petrol ones! cost is about the same as ur scooters. (not road legal though no lights/ indicators)

tyres would be cheaper too......

**Fred50** · 6th August 2006, 19:27

What the guts behind the "battery drill, a spanner and a pair of side cutters double the power output,", I'll admit to being dormant and all that.

**davereid** · 6th August 2006, 19:33

Most 2 stroke 50 cc bikes are deliberately lowered in power during manufacture to get below the 2kw threshold set for cheap rego by NZ, UK, some US states.

To get them back up to full power, generally you need to drill out the restrictor plate in the exhaust pipe, whip the washer out of the front tranny to allow the bike to get into top gear, and cut the wire to the CDI that restricts rpm.

You may have to replace the airfilter, and alter jetting as well.

Of course if you over rev your bike it will blow up. And if you get caught riding a 50cc moped at 100 km/hr your in trouble !

None of this is of value for 4 strokes, which are harder to wring more power out of.

**marty** · 6th August 2006, 19:37

quick calculation:

gas scooter - 40k/day, 260 days a year (5 working day weeks), @ 2l/100km on a 50cc scooter over 10400kms/year = 208 litres @ $1.80/l = $374/year, rego/licence/insurance cost same as electric. purchase price up to $1500 could ride it to wellington if you wanted/were stupid/sadistic

electric = .40c/day charge, $104/year. $210/year for batteries (based on approx $400 @ 17000kms), can't fill it up with electricity when it goes flat 5kms from home. purchase price $4000.

at $60/year difference, it'll only take only 41 years to make up the purchase price premium.....

**notme** · 6th August 2006, 20:07

Originally Posted by marty

quick calculation:

gas scooter - 40k/day, 260 days a year (5 working day weeks), @ 2l/100km on a 50cc scooter over 10400kms/year = 208 litres @ $1.80/l = $374/year, rego/licence/insurance cost same as electric. purchase price up to $1500 could ride it to wellington if you wanted/were stupid/sadistic

electric = .40c/day charge, $104/year. $210/year for batteries (based on approx $400 @ 17000kms), can't fill it up with electricity when it goes flat 5kms from home. purchase price $4000.

at $60/year difference, it'll only take only 41 years to make up the purchase price premium.....

Hahaha the image of the future.....people trying to beg $5 worth of electricity off someone on the side of the road!

BUT.....".40c/day charge" ....? A chargeup will cost about $0.20, not $0.40, so factoring in that we get $52 per year charging costs, then the difference is $112 per year.
That means it takes 22 years, not 41, to make up the difference in purchase price, but the real guts of it is, that when petrol costs $3.00 per litre, the time to make up that purchase price premium will be only a few years......

**marty** · 6th August 2006, 21:02

of course electricity is going to be the same price for ever.....

that's of course presuming an uninterrupted auckland supply of the stuff

**notme** · 6th August 2006, 21:17

Hehehe maybe I should have allowed for an earth wire shackle cost in there...then again we got away with the $2 Warehouse special for many years before it failed......

**notme** · 16th August 2006, 21:03

Oooooookay. A guy bought an electric scooter (not one of ours) into work for us to "fix". I now understand why some people have a negative impression of these things - the one he bought in is from another NZ importer, it's less than half the price of our importer's units, but holy shit it SUCKS. We staged a drag race against one of the EVT scooters and a coworker who was on foot. The guy on foot beat this piece of shit for the first 25 to 30 metres! Also, we found that we can hold it stationary against the motor - wheras the EVT ones can do burnouts.....

Anyway, nuff said. I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND the negative connotations of saying the words "electric scooter" now..... just wait till i get my electric go kart built!