Bill, all good points. The idea that one needs 2 tons of steel round him to get to work is just plain nuts. I absolutely agree that we need efficient EVs. But it's tough to even get more efficient ICEVs here. The trend is in the opposite direction, and it has the immense mass of ultra-rich and ultra-powerful corporations and their advertising agencies bearing on it.
So while we try to fight that trend, we also have to do what we can to work within it. As of 2019, 0.6% of Americans commuted by bicycle. These are the kind of intelligent, thoughtful, forward-thinking people who we have a good chance of getting into alternative EVs. Again, I absolutely support working toward this. At least two of the vehicles you mention, the Podbike Frikar and the Northern Light 630, sound like they may have potential. IMO that's because they're priced more or less in line with their utility, at around 6,000- 7,000 euros. Ever heard of the Twike? It was a human-electric hybrid trike, developed in the 1990s, arguably the spiritual ancestor of the EVs you mention. IMO, it was a magnificently-designed vehicle, the Swiss watch of EVs. At a time when you could buy a small, fuel-efficient ICEV for under $10,000, a Twike cost around $35,000. How many of them have you ever seen? For you, the utility of a tiny EV may be equal, or even superior, to that of a 4-place (or 7-place) road hog EV. And, again, there's a place for such EVs when they're priced realistically - look at the success of E-bikes. But as I see it, it's not practical to try to convert the real world that we live in to EVs by selling them only to people like you - or for that matter, only to people like me. We have to offer Jane and Joe Average something not much less utilitarian than what they have now. And the price has to be in line with the utility. Hence my observation. All else equal, including battery technology, it remains true that *for a given size and type of vehicle*, in general, the smaller the battery, the shorter the range. And the shorter the range, the lower the vehicle's *perceived* utility. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. -- John F Kennedy = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ Address messages to ev@lists.evdl.org No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
