No, not that GPRS. If I knew how to ride a motorcyle, I’d buy one of these. I’ve pledged not to buy a vehicle until I can buy a real electric, but I never said anything about how many wheels it needed to have. The Electric GPR-S from Electric Motorsport is more expensive than a normal motorbike but cheaper than its EV brethren. Its specs aren’t exactly eye-popping: 70mph top speed, 60 mile range. But! It only costs eight grand and, because the battery is the most likely part to either wear out or be improved, they’ve made it super easy to replace. And it’s pretty sexy, to boot. I’m seriously going to keep my eye on this thing and take some motorcycling classes. [via Wired Gadget Lab] → Read More
Last week Panasonic presented [JP] a new electric bicycle to be released on the Japanese market on August 20. The so-called Vivi RX 10-S will cost $1,400. Panasonic hasn’t said yet whether they will bring the bicycle to overseas markets as well. The bike’s main feature is a braking system that can recharge a 10Ah Li-ion secondary battery, which weighs 2.5kg, has a rated voltage of 26 V and is located next to the rear wheel. Every time the owner brakes, a mini motor mounted on the front wheel generates power. According to Panasonic, charging the battery via this method alone proves to be almost impossible however. The recharging system fails when riding faster than 24km/h. Panasonic says in internal experiments, the regenerative braking system extended the assisted travel range from 90km to 125km when riding in normal mode. Using the bike’s automatic mode, the maximum distance owners will be able to cover is 182km. The so-called Vivi RX 10-S comes with an aluminum-made frame and weighs 25.7kg. The company says it aims at selling a total of 3,000 bicycles in the first year. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
