| General > General Technical Chat |
| Im a E-bike guy, wopp di doo! |
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| AndyBeez:
My first e-bike had LEAD ACID cells for the battery pack, weighing near to 30 kilos. Was a work out just getting the bike moving. As for stopping, the brakes were completely inadequate (useless). Praise the Lord for lithium cells. --- Quote from: tszaboo on January 03, 2023, 12:44:22 pm ---Did you ever encounter this term called "motorbike"? --- End quote --- There is an arms race amongst the electric bicycle manufacturers: More Amp Hours in the battery, more kilowatts in the over sized motor drum, central drive, prop shaft drive, bomb proof welded spider frame, and so on. Reality, most e-bikes are NOT electric bicycles but electric motorcycles with added pedals. These $3000+ e-bikes are being sold with "pedal conversion" kits. Simply, manufacturers are adding cheap and nasty plastic pedals and chains for regulatory compliance. If it has a 2500W motor, a 100Ah battery, a top speed of 80mph and, it has pedals, then it must be a bicycle. Right? Which means no road taxation, no vehicle insurance and no vehicle testing to stamp the pink slip every year. Plus, your five year old son can legally ride it on the highway and all pedestrian footpaths. Pedal kits can be removed and replaced with foot rests - which the supplier conveniently sells on their Chinese website. Unfortunately, fitting footrests also requires the fitment of road legal mirrors, indicators, a speedometer and let us not forget, efficient brakes. Because your five year old son might just need to go from 50mph to zero when he encounters a red traffic signal. Newsflash: Electric motorbikes must stop at red traffic signals, whereas electric bicycles (and manual bicycles) never have/ever will. Compare and contrast that barbecue on spokes with this 'budget' electric motorcycle: "I BOUGHT the CHEAPEST ELECTRIC dirt bike on Amazon" from Sean Kerr on the Bikes & Beards channel: |
| VK3DRB:
--- Quote ---These $3000+ e-bikes are being sold with "pedal conversion" kits. Simply, manufacturers are adding cheap and nasty plastic pedals and chains for regulatory compliance. If it has a 2500W motor, a 100Ah battery, a top speed of 80mph and, it has pedals, then it must be a bicycle. Right? Which means no road taxation, no vehicle insurance and no vehicle testing to stamp the pink slip every year. Plus, your five year old son can legally ride it on the highway and all pedestrian footpaths... --- End quote --- Anyone caught riding that here will be fined heavily. 200W motor is the maximum not primarily because of safety, but because of tax avoidance. Scooters and electric bikes are not per km taxed - YET, but petrol motor bikes are taxed every time a rider buys petrol. To my knowledge, we are the only jurisdiction in the world to have a per km tax for electric cars. It is nicknamed the "Daniel Andrews Electric Vehicle Disincentive Tax" (Premier Daniel Andrews is the birdbrain who introduced this tax). No surprise, the uptake of EV's here is about the lowest in the western world. His political party has received political donations from oil companies. The EV tax is calculated by sending a photograph of the odometer to the state government every year. It is around 2.5 cents per km, but will likely rise considerably if EV's gain in popularity - possibly to 15 or 20 cents per km within ten years. Plug-in hybrid vehicles are currently taxed at 2.0 cents per km. There is an loophole though. There is a company in Queensland that converts certain models of internal combustion engine cars into EVs. The state government hew has no way of knowing if a petrol car has been converted or not. If this loophole becomes popular, the Victorian police will likely randomly open up the bonnet of some models of cars to check. Getting caught on tax fraud here can result in severe financial penalties including prison time. |
| Ed.Kloonk:
Madness. |
| PlainName:
Why is per km taxing so bad for EVs? They are big, heavy things that put more wear on the roads than most IC vehicles, and yet there is no way to tax them via fuel (how would you tell the electricity is being used to charge an EV instead of, for instance, powering your dialysis machine?). Seems only fair that they pay tax like everyone else, and per km seems to be the only sensible way to do it. And... EVs are expensive enough that if you can afford one you can afford the tax too. Maybe you can suggest a reasonable and workable alternative? |
| VK3DRB:
--- Quote from: PlainName on January 05, 2023, 12:54:08 pm ---Why is per km taxing so bad for EVs? They are big, heavy things that put more wear on the roads than most IC vehicles, and yet there is no way to tax them via fuel (how would you tell the electricity is being used to charge an EV instead of, for instance, powering your dialysis machine?). Seems only fair that they pay tax like everyone else, and per km seems to be the only sensible way to do it. And... EVs are expensive enough that if you can afford one you can afford the tax too. Maybe you can suggest a reasonable and workable alternative? --- End quote --- The government says the tax is for wear and tear on the roads, but the reality is the petrol tax and the electric vehicle per km tax goes into consolidated revenue. Road tax should be accounted for in vehicle registration fees, where the cost is shared, meaning poorer people who have to travel long distances pay less tax and wealthier people who live close to the city centre pay more tax. I see a time when electric scooters and eBikes will be taxed per km like electric vehicles in this state and maybe throughout the free world. |
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