Electric – Dreams No More

[advrider]

My nephew Joern in Germany, who lives near Wolfsburg and works for VW, rides an R1250 GS but also drives. His experiences with his current car are worth noting; they have major potential applications for electric motorcycles as well.

“Since the Ukraine crisis started,” he writes, “a liter of diesel cost 2.10 €. Then the government decided on a subsidy, and the oil companies were supposed to reduce the price by 0.30 €, instead the diesel now costs 2.15 € and the oil companies put the 0.30 € in their own pocket without batting an eyelid. What can I say, nobody cares, everyone is on the hook, and everyone blames everyone else. Nothing happens only that the oil billionaires have bigger and bigger yachts. Everything is unbelievable.

“We are just glad that we are currently driving a VW iD3 and our electricity price is still dirt cheap compared to the cost for a combustion engine. It covers 500 kilometers on a single charge, for which we currently pay 23 €. With a combustion engine that would already be over a hundred euros, and who knows where the price is going.”

The relative prices of fuel and electricity will obviously vary in different countries and according to when you charge your vehicle, but with less than a quarter of the cost for an electric vehicle, that has to be attractive. It certainly looks as if the Golf-sized iD3 costs half as much for ‘fuel’ as Joern’s bike.

The increasing availability of fast chargers makes cars like this VW practical. Photo: VW

“Two years ago,” Joern goes on, “we installed a home charger, which was subsidized by the State so it did not cost us anything. On my phone I have an app with charging points for all of Europe, the fast chargers from IONITY are not as widely distributed as the normal chargers, but you can get everywhere. The fast charger fills our large battery in 60 minutes to 85%, so if we start with a full battery here at home we can drive 480 kilometers, then use the app to find a fast charger and after a one-hour break we can drive another 350 kilometers. By then we would already be in Munich or past Copenhagen. When I tell my navigation device in the iD3 where I want to go, it offers me charging stations on my route depending on my driving style and weather.”

Distances in Australia, the US or Canada are going to be greater than in Europe but city riding/driving is the same. That idea of identifying charging stations based on your riding style and the weather has obvious motorcycle application, too. Not such a big deal, perhaps. But yet another reason for the inexorable rise of electric motorcycles.

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