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posted by janrinok on Saturday May 20 2023, @08:54AM   Printer-friendly

Electric two-wheelers are set to scoot past EVs in road race:

Video Visit Asia's emerging megacities and you'll quickly notice that scooters and motorbikes vastly outnumber cars. Before long these fleets of two-wheelers will become battery-powered, always-connected, semi-autonomous machines that offer an even more potent alternative to their four-wheeled rivals.

The reasons powered two-wheelers dominate nations such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam – with a combined population over 1.75 billion – are simple: cars are unaffordable on local wages, few urban homes have space to store them, and warm climates make two-wheelers viable year-round. Plus, many of them sell for less than the equivalent of $1,000 apiece.

The industry has decided many will soon be electric and it looks like drivers will buy them.

"Electrification of micromobility can be adopted at a faster pace than cars, mainly because the motor and batteries are much smaller," Fook Fah Yap, a director at Singapore's Nanyang Technical University's Transport Research Centre told The Register.

Evidence of the shift is not hard to find. Earlier this year Honda announced it will start to sell 10 battery-powered bikes in 2025. Yamaha expects 90 percent of its sales will be electrified by 2050 and Toyota is expected to announce an electric two-wheeler this year.

[...] Two—wheelers, by contrast, are all about getting from A to B, quickly and at low cost. Digital technology's role in a two-wheeler is therefore all about information related to navigation.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Saturday May 20 2023, @03:21PM (3 children)

    by VLM (445) on Saturday May 20 2023, @03:21PM (#1307144)

    There's a demographic effect much like plain old muscle powered bicycles, my kids or I can lay a plain old bike up against a tree and it'll still be there days later in my non-diverse subdivision, but I don't think a $1000 electric scooter will survive long 'downtown' in the more 'vibrant' areas. Which ironically are the poorest and would benefit the most from cheap transport.

    Its unfortunate that the people who would benefit the most have a crime rate too high for the technology to 'work' for them.

    • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday May 20 2023, @08:25PM

      by krishnoid (1156) on Saturday May 20 2023, @08:25PM (#1307173)

      Good thing about that is that lithium-ion batteries can come with their own electrical, or maybe even explosive deterrent [youtu.be].

    • (Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Saturday May 20 2023, @08:34PM

      by MIRV888 (11376) on Saturday May 20 2023, @08:34PM (#1307174)

      A padlock and chain works great here stateside. I imagine it would work in Asia as well. The tropical heat? Not so much.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 22 2023, @04:36PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday May 22 2023, @04:36PM (#1307357) Journal

      Apple to the rescue!

      Imagine these bikes stop working as soon as you report them stolen via your phone app. Or what if you must have a phone in order to unlock them?

      Imagine an Apple like solution where every part on the bike is tied to the serial number of the bike and once reported stolen is pretty much useless. It's a good way to help keep landfills full instead of getting them serviced.

      --
      Satin worshipers are obsessed with high thread counts because they have so many daemons.
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2023, @04:11PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 20 2023, @04:11PM (#1307150)

    warm climates make two-wheelers viable year-round.

    Warm? Has the writer ever been to those places? Many of those warm climates are actually hot and also have very wet seasons... During a thunderstorm it's more comfortable to be in a car than on a bike. During very hot weather it's also more comfortable to be in an air-conditioned car than on a bike.

    FWIW I've cycled in colder climates (not the super cold ones) and the cold (with gloves etc) is still better than thunderstorm or very hot weather - you end up soaked in rain and/or sweat. As for danger, yes icy roads are dangerous but in many Asian countries many of the roads have potholes in them, but it's harder to notice them when those potholes are filled with rainwater - you just see a wet road... Hitting a pothole with a car hurts too but hitting a pothole on a bike and falling and getting rolled over tends to be worse...

    So take it from me, most of them are using those two wheelers because it's cheaper. The hot climates don't actually make them more viable compared to other climates. Those places with cool/cold dry climates are FAR BETTER for two wheelers.

    And if you are slightly richer you still aren't going to enjoy wearing those more protective leather suits and full face helmets in hot humid weather - you better be rich enough to get the ones with cooling... You want those cooled helmets too - unless you like hot smelly sweaty helmets.

    p.s. High temperatures aren't that great for batteries either. Those bikes better be designed to be parked out in the blazing sun...

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by inertnet on Saturday May 20 2023, @06:51PM (1 child)

      by inertnet (4071) on Saturday May 20 2023, @06:51PM (#1307160) Journal

      most of them are using those two wheelers because it's cheaper

      And a lot faster in traffic, which is also very common in those places.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2023, @12:48AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2023, @12:48AM (#1307275)
        Most of those in Asia are using two wheelers because it's faster and less tiring than going on foot.

        That it's faster than other vehicles in traffic jams is just a bonus.
  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday May 20 2023, @08:21PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Saturday May 20 2023, @08:21PM (#1307171)

    There's one company doing this in pacific rim countries [youtu.be]. The whole process looks anti-climactic -- even the display animation is forgettable.

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