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Porsche's new companies are all about electric bikes:
In the future, you may come across a lot more two-wheeled Porsches on the streets. The luxury automaker has launched two new joint ventures with Dutch company Ponooc Investment B.V., and they're both all about electric bikes. Porsche eBike Performance GmbH is based in Ottobrunn near Munich and will develop components, including motors and batteries. Anything it creates will then be used by P2 eBike GmbH, the second joint venture based in Stuttgart, to manufacture Porsche-branded e-bikes for consumers that the company plyans to launch starting in the middle of the decade.
Porsche is far from a newcomer in the e-bike space. In 2021, it debuted two electric bikes inspired by the Taycan and were made to complement the Cross Turismo, which has a rear carrier. Those bikes, however, along with their motors and gear shifting systems, were manufactured by Japanese bicycle industry giant Shimano. With one company developing parts and another working on the consumer bikes themselves, the upcoming products the joint ventures will release will be all (or at least mostly) Porsche.
The components business will use the e-bike drive systems develop by Fazua, a company Porsche recently acquired, as noted by Electrek. However, it will also develop e-bike systems under the Porsche brand name — it will even sell the technology it designs to other brands. As with anything Porsche, the bikes under the new ventures will most likely not come cheap: Its Taycan-inspired bikes, for instance, set buyers back at least $8,500 at launch, with the sports model selling for prices that start at $10,700.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 06 2022, @04:11PM (2 children)
There's a huge difference between 20mph on a 250w hub motor and 20mph on a 2000w peak motor.
Our bikes are 350 and 750w, and even though they are both governed to 20mph, the experience is quite different getting there.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday August 08 2022, @06:01PM (1 child)
Mine is 750 watts, according to the manual. I still want to know why gasoline mopeds are allowed to do 30.
Poe's Law [nooze.org] has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poetry
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 08 2022, @08:21PM
'cause: reasons. Laws on top of laws, special interests driving those laws, etc.
Around here: Class-(something) e-bikes, which are regulated exactly 100% like a pedaled bicycle, are limited to 20mph. Once you exceed 20mph you're in moped and/or motorcycle regulations. I don't think mopeds require any special licensing, but they're not bicycles so can't be ridden on bike trails, etc. and there's probably a few hoops they have to jump that e-bikes don't - but what those are I'm not entirely sure. Then above 28mph, I think, you're in motorcycle class where you need DOT everything, special operators' license, etc.
What I don't understand is the quantum leap in price, from $800 for a decent minimalist 20mph e-bike to $5K for a minimalist highway capable motorcycle. I get that it has to be more expensive because of the parts required, etc. but... 6x more expensive?!?
🌻🌻 [google.com]