we'll all have our own opinions about Harley's latest adventure

[BoschZEV]

can battery technology progress exponentially and become efficient enough to exploit renewable energy to be a true option to fossil fuel?

"Exponential" progress isn't required. Present battery technology already is good enough for the needs of the majority of people, and another factor of 2 will get us there for nearly everyone else. The latest electric motorcycles are good for somewhat over 100 miles on the highway (250 miles in the city), with a recharge time to 80% power of less than 45 minutes. I don't know about anyone else, but I'd hate to try to cover 250 miles in a single day in city traffic, so already battery technology has commuting taken care of. With another factor of 2 improvement, being able to ride 200 miles on the Interstate, have lunch while the bike charges, and then ride another 200 miles would exceed the needs or desires of all but a few hard core riders.

Battery lifetime is another significant cost factor, with some manufacturers offering warranties of 3 yrs. or 30,000 miles. Although everyone on the AMCA Forum probably thinks of a 3 year old motorcycle as essentially brand new, a lot of "normal" people trade in their vehicles when they're that old. Still, manufacturers recognize this as an issue so I expect recycling and competition between them to provide a cost-effective solution. For example, being able to trade in an old battery for a new one for significantly less than the purchase price of a new motorcycle would make a big dent in the cost/mile or cost/year ownership.

Anyway, with AMCA members as an exception, the future of motorcycling will be electric, and the future is already starting to arrive.

[pisten-bully]

I'm thinking that Harley has a good dealer network, as in widely distributed, and if they can use that network to sell and service their e-bikes then that's a real bonus. But I also think that if they're going to use the existing network then they need to get their dealers enthused and to participate with enthusiasm, and provide after sale support with a mechanic or two who know the technology and won't look down on the fact that they're working on a bicycle and not a v-twin. I understand that for the Buell and maybe the Livewire not all dealers were "onboard" with those offerings, so in some areas people were left with a bad feeling for Harley?

Otherwise, they can do like the other bicycle manufacturers do and offer the bicycle line to established retailers that have a following in outdoor recreation customers.

If Harley markets their e-bike correctly there's no real reason it won't sell. Oh, and I've been on them before, you still have to pedal to get around...just not as hard, especially nice on uphills!

[tfburke3]

The earliest patent I'm aware of is from 1870. Yes, eighteen seventy. In the 1930s the Belgian Socovel brothers designed a machine based on lead-acid batteries with a range of ~25 miles at a top speed of ~20 mph. Those specs don't sound very impressive, but by 1936 they had sold an estimated 1000 of them.

Thanks for reply.Interesting that electric predated petrol.Things come full circle.Or would that mean steam transportation is in our future.
Tom

[BoschZEV]

Thanks for reply.Interesting that electric predated petrol.Or would that mean steam transportation is in our future.

The world's very first motorcycle, from 1871, miraculously has survived, and it will be the first one visitors will see when they enter the exhibition in Brisbane when it opens in two weeks.

https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-...the-motorcycle

However, it was obsolete the day it was built, because less than ten years earlier a fellow Frenchman had published the first theoretical description of the four-cycle internal combustion engine. Interestingly, the guy who built that motorcycle, Louis-Guillaume Perreaux, patented an electric version just before patenting his steam motorcycle. I should say that the French patent system seems to have been a bit loose in their requirements because there's no way the electric version would have worked as described. Still, the benefits of electric power were recognized from Day One, and it has "only" taken 150 years for battery technology to make it possible for electric motorcycles to begin to compete with ones powered by internal combustion engines.