ICE vs. Electric
These days lots of people are thinking about the future of ICEs (Internal Combustion Engines) vs ‘electrics’ and are trying to make realistic projections about various things related to the widely anticipated transition. One personal thought experiment involves today's excellent electric fireplace inserts, which provide both room heat and a highly realistic simulacrum of a traditional fire.
Managing combustion is so old within us it may have become partly encoded in our human DNA. I recently read about an experiment done by scientists in the UK which slightly bears on this. They wanted to find out if wild mice in a forest would use a randomly encountered hamster wheel. They do, which means this behavior is something deep within the neural architecture and chemistry of field mouse brains. Aside from questioning how those scientists obtained the funding to do this crazy experiment in the first place, it probably usefully informs lots of other kinds of mammalian things like, for example, why we enjoy riding motorcycles, making and hearing music, dancing, why we seem drawn to fire, why some run for recreation and why dogs put their head out the window of a moving car.
The hook for widely adopting electric cars and bikes for utility will end up being, as has already been proven across much of Asia, their far lower cost of operation and their extremely low maintenance requirements compared to ICE vehicles. This type of technology shift has occurred with every kind of machine the industrial revolution brought forth for at least the past 150 years and has almost nothing to do with environmental impacts or objective performance. It’s all about cost-of-operation, reliability, and convenience.
Except my personal experiences with an e-bike do not quite support this: After roughly 6,000 miles of year-around e-bike commuting and utility riding miles during the last four years using a relatively crappy 500w 37v Chinese e-bike, plus further miles aboard an excellent Zero electric motorcycle shared with several of my Aerostich co-workers, plus lots of still-continuing miles of utility and recreational ICE motorcycle riding, I still prefer the experience of using and taking care of an engine.
All these riding machines are great, but guess which I most love? Hint: It’s difficult to roast marshmallows and make smores using a convenient electric fireplace insert. For more than a few of us, the years just ahead will be an interesting ride.
But, nothing has been said about the environmental cost of getting the ores or processing the ores. I once read a piece on a nickel mine in Canada. Devastating the land and leaving hazardous waste by the tons. So just getting the raw materials is environmentally disastrous, the refining and production of batteries is also environmentally costly.
Mentioned was disposing of spent batteries, this is producing hazardous waste as well.
Then there is the environmental cost of producing the electricity. You don't get something for nothing. Additionly our power grid is already maxed to the limit and is very vulnerable to hacking. My daughter lives in Texas and during this last cold spell she lost power for a little over a day, with another spell expected through the weekend.
I for one do not want to put all my eggs in the electricity basket.
However, this is a complicated topic with so many aspects to discuss. I was reading in the WSJ yesterday about how the Semi drivers using electric trucks are struggling in California because of limited range, long re-charge times (1.5hours x 3 times a day) and having to haul lighter loads. All of this means less profit/income to the trucker drivers.
Big city commuting by electric cars (or smaller Zero type motorcycles) seems the best possible deployment of the technology. Where you might be running a few hundred miles a day max and can do all the re-charging in your home garage, and you don't need to carry much on your bike.
As for motorcycles, I think there are several very real problems with the transition to electric for larger touring bikes and they are 1. where to put the batteries (physical size), 2. weight of the bike with all the batteries, and 3. Safety/protection barriers from fire. This doesn't even get into the topic of "where do you find a charging station," "Tire wear," or "hauling capacity" for remote areas that so many riders like to explore. Bottom line, I don't see myself ever riding a bike like the Zero in the above story or a little bike like that. It simply does appeal to me in any way (Zero appeal).
I am a motorcycle enthusiast that started working in my father's motorcycling shop at very young age. I have ridden different brands of motorcycles several hundreds of thousands of miles around US and Canada. I am hopeful that ICEs motorcycles will continue to be sold well into the future as to me it is the ideal mode of transportation and like the mice in the above story, something about humans and motorcycles, if a motorcycle was in the forest and you randomly came across it, you would fix it, start it, load it up, and ride the wheels off of it.
agree with your commentary and comparison.
It's like me a 65 year old, driving with my son listening to music. America comes on playing Tin Man. He starts singing the words saying dad, this is a great song. I never introduced it to him, and he was born 50 years later..must be a Genetic imprint!! or damn fine music!!