Green-Mopeds.com

The future of micromobility - Interview With Laka CEO Tobi Taupitz

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 12:00:00 +0000

The future of micromobility is an interesting prospect.

#micromobility #ev #electricbikes #electricmopeds #electricvehicles #electricmotorcycles

As I walk up to the ECCity (the French manufacturer) there’s nothing to suggest that it’s not an ordinary scooter.

It seems to me that the ECCity 50, as it’s more easily known, is quite happy and maybe even proud to be scooter and why not, it does everything a scooter should do very well.

As you get closer it becomes clear that this is a premium product, no flimsy cheap plastic here just the good quality stuff and lots of it, all finished in what ECCity call Champagne (that’s brown to you and me) and you know what?

The ECCity sits on a set of very stylish 13inch wheels - they are of the more solid kind and look like they’ve come straight off a Citroen CX Turbo from the mid 90s, very French.

The seat is very wide, a bit too wide for my liking but never-the-less comfortable, comfortable enough even for the longest of journeys or days where I was in the saddle the whole day and the riding position will be very familiar to anyone who’s ever ridden a traditional scooter so that means very comfortable in that familiar body upright, legs forward almost like your sitting on a chair kinda way, this is however where the similarities to a normal scooter ends and things start to get a little strange.

Turn the surprisingly flimsy keys (I never did get used to it) and you get the first sign that this is no ordinary scooter because the only thing that happens is a little green light comes on under the funky Jetson-style space-age digital dashboard hmm…it is now apparently ready to go.

Twist the throttle and under its champagne coloured body work you are now sending tiny little lithium ions from the negative side of the German built Samsung battery back across the electrolyte to the positive electrode, thus producing the current that carries the electrons from the battery to a set of floating magnets located inside the back wheel.

“Riding a scooter is like riding a ladyboy, it’s a lot of fun until your mates catch you doing it” - Dan Gold

Right…!

Now I know that the ECCity 50 is neither a bumper car nor is it a bullet train but could scooters be another example where electricity trumps the petrol engine perhaps?

The Artelec is off to a great start, twist the chunky throttle and because of the unique way an electric motor works you get all of the power and all of the torque instantly, this soon becomes very addictive and it never failed to put a smile on my face to out-accelerate pizza delivery guys at the lights or silently sneak up on an unsuspecting tourist on a Boris Bikes because the ECCity 50’s 4000w is equivalent of a 50cc petrol engine so it soon runs out of puff around about the 35mph mark so you have to pick your fights carefully.

Plug ‘n play

It could not be easier to charge the Artelec under the seat you will find a 2-metre long lead with conventional plug at the end of that you simply pop in to a domestic wall socket at home or at the office.

So, the build quality is excellent and its good looking (for a scooter at least), it’s well equipped and fun to ride (again for a scooter), practical with plenty of storage, it’s comfortable enough to ride all day and it does all of this with virtually no running costs so it’s a no brainer right we should all rush out and buy a ECCity 50.

Well I’m afraid not because there are a few problems and they are rather big problems.

But the real elephant in the room is the £6,495 price tag, that’s an eye-watering amount of money for something that can only do 35mph, I know that all electric vehicles are expensive and I know roughly half of that price is the lithium-ion battery from Samsung and I also know you will get a government grant of roughly £1500 but that still leaves £3,247.

ECCity 50 Technical Specification

Price	£6,495
Motor	4000 W normal 5000 W peak
Speed	28 mph
Range	75 miles
Weight	150kg
Charging Time	4-8 hours
Colour options	Champagne, White, Black or Emerald Green
Factory options	Top Box, Integrated high-windshield, bag-holder and USB socket

Visit Dan at either of two London-based tattoo and art studios: manufacturers can follow suit on that.

Three Wheelers!

What I did notice this year was a growing number of electric 3 wheelers around, some new and some being announced.

The Silence brand from Scutum had a couple of their new 4KW S03 on show.

From China, Doohan’s ITank on the other hand has been taken on by GoodYear as its 1490w based ITrike.

Unfortunately, Doohan said that their electronic display is not configured for MPH so it would be a struggle to get a V5 for it or the more eye-pleasing 1200w ITango and I can also see an almost mandatory top-box is required as storage seems lacking on both.

Not to be out-done, Torrot have announced its Velocipedo that comes in two guises.

As an aside, Torrot also unveiled their 2018 Muvi models with a few nice tweaks like a new rear arm, extended range from new optional batteries and different colour options.

ECCity from France were showing of their entry into the 3-wheeled market too.

Scutum were showing theirs off as a Police variant too so Public Sector would be another area but obviously nipping in and out of traffic would probably have to be sacrificed on 3 wheels.

The Far East

In China the days of petrol mopeds and motorbikes were over long ago.
It’s not surprising then that were quite a few manufacturers from China and Taiwan at EICMA either overtly as Wuxi with their cool 21^stcentury incarnation of what a Vespa could be (unfortunately no MPH) to the more covert brands of Super Soco and Evoke.
Currently Super Soco by VMoto offer the TS 1200R in the UK.
Just across the way, VMotos Italian Distributor had the newly announced Evoke on its stand.
In addition to Super Soco, Nui also from China had one of the larger electric motorbike stands.
The other aspect of Far Eastern bikes is that they still have many Lead Acid Bikes which you would be hard pressed to find in European bike.
UgBest were also there promoting their EkoKargo delivery range which a choice of 20ah 2kw silicon based bikes up to 60ah 5kw lithium and Jiangsu Bolt Intelligent Technology (Tinbolt) had a large stand with some Vespa-like 800-3000w Lead Acid based machine called the TB-F10.
Next up was Sanyang (Sym) from Taiwan offering their e-Virid Lithium based bike in deluxe and standard models.
A sportier looking bike came in from Otto from Taiwan with the MCR standing for Mini City Racer.
Europe

In addition to ECCity from France and Torrot from Spain, Germany was represented by Govecs who might well be known for Bike sharing schemes in Paris with its CityScoot and eCooltra in Lisbon plus others.
Both Govecs and their German counterpart Emco-elektroroller have retro looking bikes in their range.
Emco have gone for a reincarnation of a 60s Vespa look with its 2km Nova.
They offer 3 “ES” models, the single seat base model ES1 is a 1500w, L1e based bike which is stated to have a 3-hour charge from its single removable lithium battery and just over 30-mile range.
hours with a 50-mile range.
They all come with a rear tray for a top box or delivery options and are available in 6 colours.
Coming at riders from the higher end, Volta from Spain have a couple of sharp looking bikes in their BCN City and Sport models.
And finally

For those who still do not think that electric motorbikes cannot be exhilarating, fast and exciting, you only needed to drop by Energica to see that that is not true.
Range is quoted at 93 miles but fast charging can get you back up to 85% in 30 minutes from a mode 4 on-board charger.
Of course, these bikes don’t come cheap.
I’m already looking forward to EICMA 2018!

Can Electric Mopeds & Motorcycles Help With Moped Crime?

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 04:50:00 +0000

I read with interest the piece from John Richards of Chelsea Scooters in last months Dealer News about Moped theft and crime and wanted to comment.
There are two aspects to crime.
The other aspect however is theft of the moped itself.
While Richards comment is true that crime is a bigger problem than emissions, we would suggest there is a solution to both and that comes in the form of adopting electric motorcycles or mopeds.
While its obvious that electric can deal with the emission challenge, what it can also deal with is the theft problem.
If the bike was still stolen, would a thief want to pay the price of a new battery at about £700?
With regards to Insurance being a challenge for would-be riders.
Either through Government policy or choice, the days of electric mopeds and motorcycles are coming and this is just another advantage they carry over their noiser, dirtier and more expensive to run alternatives.

Dealers need a different approach for customers moving to Electric 2 wheeled transport

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Today when you go into your car or motorbike dealer, most of the decision criteria is based on the traditional aspects that we all know well.
Today with 100% electric, some of that approach should apply again.
However, with electric and specifically with the motorbikes and mopeds, just like when you purchased your brand new shiny black Model T, the first consideration will nearly always be range.
Having met countless interested people recently who are mostly surprised that 100% electric motorbikes and mopeds even exist, their first questions will nearly always be “How far can I go?
In the world of iPhones, Laptops and Tablets they get that the technology is limited by battery life and they also get that the infrastructure isn’t there yet.
So if the customer gets it, dealers should too?
Secondly, with this different priority of considerations on the customers mind, one would argue that the sales person needs to take more of a consultative approach and rather than just sell features, they need to understand more thoroughly what the customer typically will want to do with the bike.
Of course, electric motorbikes and mopeds have different classes and performances possibilities just like their petrol equivalents but fundamentally the range, charging time and almost certainly fixed versus removable batteries are crucial decision criteria no matter what features the bike have and even the brand.
A perfect example of why this consultative approach should be adopted is fixed versus removable batteries.
This is backed up by a survey that we recently conducted of three different categories of potential users, commuters, current petrol moped users and people who are fundamentally environmentally friendly.
Eco-Friendly Demographic

This suggests a few things.
In other words, it’s a change of where the money comes from for the dealers that presents the opportunity right now and once that is understood, the barriers to adopting electric bikes as part of a dealers product portfolio should be more acceptable.
A summarised version of this post appeared in Novmber '17 issue of British Dealer News

http://www.

Can you convince a petrolhead to go electric? By Suzi Perry, journalist and broadcaster

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 13:48:00 +0000

Green-Mopeds were invited to the Ace Cafe to try & convince journalist & committed “petrol head” Suzi Perry about the advantages of electric two-wheeled bikes.

I’ve been riding motorbikes for 25 years or so – petrol motorbikes mainly.

I fell in love with biking because of the sound, the smell, the feeling of total freedom on the road and basically I’ve always thought it’s pretty cool being a bikerNow the team from 5 live’s climate change series Cool Planet have asked me to drag myself out of the dark ages and have a look into electric bikes.

I’ve ridden a few electric bikes and I must say I was very impressed with the immediate power delivery, but I’m yet to be converted – I would consider myself to be a purist…

So I went to meet some enthusiasts to see if they can convince me; motorcycle journalist Paul Blezard and Green-Mopeds who sells eight brands of electric mopeds and motorcycles.

You don’t hear them arrive when we meet at the bikers’ café off London’s North Circular road and this is one of my issues with electric bikes – no sound!
But that is one of the things Green-Mopeds likes about them – especially for trail riding – he calls them stealth machines.
But what about safety?
Doesn’t make it right though, does it…

He is not giving up though.

Paul Blezard does admit electric bikes aren’t perfect yet, but for him they’re like a “magic carpet ride”, with plenty of power… you’re just floating along without noisy distractions.
Talking about noise, there’s no missing Ace Café owner Mark Wilsmore’s entrance.
“Pure poetry that sound,” he smirks as he revs it up to pull alongside the electric bikes plugged in to the charger on the wall.
He’s a dinosaur like me and is here to back me up.
And that is my other issue – the charging.
Green-Mopeds have a response for that; “the shortest charge on our bikes takes three and a half hours, but they also have removable batteries so you could charge it inside the house, or take multiple batteries, or take a charger with you and plug in to any 13 amp plug”.

That’s far too backward for Mark.
“This sounds like the early days of motoring when everyone rode horses – and if you drove, you had to take petrol with you because there weren’t any gas stations.
“And that’s the big issue with all electric vehicles.
Paul then tells me about friends of his who went around the world in 80 days on electric motorcycles back in 2010.
He says they had every kind of plug you could imagine and they were plugging into telegraph poles in Kazakhstan.
That’s all very well, but for people to make that switch from petrol to an electric bike it has to be made easy for them.
I’m wondering whether instead of trying to convert people, manufacturers will have more success aiming at a younger generation – in the same way Formula E have aimed at a younger generation as opposed to Formula 1.
If you’ve never really ridden petrol bikes and you jump on an electric bike, how brilliant – you have that instant speed and they’re so easy to use with a ‘twist and go’ scooter style throttle.

Paul Blezard is a total convert: “You get a bigger oomph from the torque because you get maximum torque from zero revs – and you’ve got to be careful – they can spit you off if they don’t have traction control – I’ve seen it happen.
“And you get the regen braking so you don’t have to touch the conventional brakes at all, you can ride all day just opening and closing the throttle.
So have they managed to convince me?
I’m convinced electric is the way things are going.
I’m not convinced it’s as much fun as being on a petrol bike, but I do think with the developing technology that in time everyone will be on electric bikes and petrol bikes could become a hobby for purists.
And off they go with just a very slight whirring…

The original post of this article can be found on the BBC Web-Site Sales of scooters and mopeds under 50cc have dropped by 40.
One of the biggest factors affecting the drop in gas-powered scooter sales is the simultaneous jump in Some European countries are taking steps to further facilitate the shift away from gas-powered scooters and towards electric bicycles.
Even without government sponsored grants and credits, other European countries still experienced big growth in electric bicycle sales in 2017, including a 25% increase in Italy and a 19% increase in Germany.
Germany is the EU’s largest e-bike market, and saw over 720,000 e-bike sales in 2017.
Electrek’s Take

What we are seeing was largely inevitable.
Gas scooters have long been convenient ways to zip around crowded European cities, and for decades no one questioned their few disadvantages due to lack of a better alternative.
Both the cost and range of light electric vehicles have made massive strides over the past few years.
The bigger question is “when are Americans going to wake up to two-wheeled commuting?
Despite being commonplace in European culture, scooters and mopeds never caught on to the same large degree in American cities – even where the climate allows it.
The original post of this article can be found
Repost from Guy Salens Post on Electric Motorcycle News 21/9/17

When I wroted this article for LinkedIn (you’ll find it below) a few days later I got a message from Ecomobility Green World (Spain) that brings customers already a new concept of multibrand dealership and service center only for electric motorcycles and inspired in coexistence with nature.
Located in Seville’s city centre, Ecomobility’s showroom is a multi-brand showroom dedicated to the display and sale of the state of the art of electric motorcycles and mobility products and to raise awareness about sustainability and clean energies applied to urban mobility.

Ecomobility Green World: “Our aim is to bring customers a new concept of multibrand dealership and service center only for electric motorcycles and inspired in coexistence with nature.

The main idea was to create a dynamic space for the exhibition of products that are meant to move when in use, but are still when displayed, and to enhance the eco and clean energy qualities of the electric motorcycles.
You can read their full story on Could an Electric Center be a new retail system for electric motorcycles?
(Posted on LinkedIn 13/09/2017) At this moment, there are a lot of E-motorcycles initiatives going on.
Some start up companies I have spoken, are developing 1 or 2 years before they can produce a prototype.
E-Centers?
Why couldn’t there be Electric Centers in town with several e-brands of electric motorcycles and e-scooters together?
It’s a bit out-of-the-box thinking, an Electric Center is not about 1 brand but a mobility solution for a large audience.
There could be possibilities to test, hire and/or buy electric vehicles.
There are some E-offroad centers in the world right now.
I am convinced that this role is provided for entrepreneurs/investors in cooperation with brands and start up’s.
The original article can be found The comparion below is based on spending about the same amount on a used car versus a new Torrot Muvi Executive which is a 125cc (L3e) equivalent bike and that the car is really used just by 1 person for the majority of the time.
Im not totally sure that comparing a car of that age with any other new vehicle is right but that’s the basis Ive made.
Below are the calculations I came up with

*** USED *** *** NEW *** Source

Ford Fiesta 1. Muvi Executive (2018)

Miles on Clock 60,000 0

Purchase Cost £3,500 £3,745

Fuel Cost/15000 Miles £1,500 £150
http://www.

Discs/Pads/Tyres * £600 £285 http://www.

Service (2 Minor, 1 Major) £475 £100 £50 £50

Tax £395 £0

Insurance Based on individual

Total £6,520 £4,330

* Not Dealer Parts for Fiesta

Front Pads 30 20

Front Discs 70 30

Read Pads 40 20

Rear Discs 60 25

Tyres 200 70

Fitting 200 120

Total for Parts 600 285

Based on the above, the car is 71% more than the Muvi after 3 years and by the 4th year, it is almost 100% more.
I accept that this might not be all the considerations but based on the above, I cant really see how a car would be cheaper and that’s before considering the other issues that might affect a car of that age.
In addition, the bike comes with a 3 year warranty on the batteries and a 2 year warranty on the bike itself which of course an 8 year old car would not have which could possibly add a significant additional cost to it.
Other bikes from us are more or less to buy but I think this is a fair comparison of the advantages of choosing an electric motorcycle over a 2nd hand car.

Why You Should Consider an Electric Motorcycle

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:19:00 +0000

Thought this was worth reposting from (For even more information on the Red Sticker Program,
Zero FX Motorcycle

Q: What about on-road motorcycles? Jay: On-road motorcycles in California will likely be held to the
Locations of designated dirt bike riding areas.
Q: What are the barriers to widespread adoption of electric motorcycles?
Jay: The big two factors with electric vehicles in general are price and range.

When electric motorcycles are able to compete in the sub $7,000-price range with gas motorcycles, you’ll see a fairly quick switch, as people see that electric bikes have lower maintenance.

Consumers will get the electric motorcycle as an addition to their collection.

Lightning Motors LS-218 Electric Motorcycle.

Kymco Eyeing Up Entering The UK EV Motorcycle Market & Surveys Dealers

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:19:00 +0000

At Motorcycle Trade Expo yesterday at Stoneleigh Park, Kymco had a plethora of their range on one of the larger stands.
Many might have missed two smaller bikes in the corner without a price attached to their displayed card which both had the tell-tale sign of no exhaust pipe.
On speaking to them it turns out Kymco are looking at launching their Cozy here in the UK but not before validating the market through a survey of potential dealers.
On looking at their Chinese site and reading some of the news, there are two things that are clear about this motorcycle from their perspective.
Firstly, they have seen what GoGoro have been doing to their south in Taiwan with recent press saying they have shipped 50,000 units in just 2 years.
Technically however, there is little comparison to be made.
However, looking at the Kymco Chinese site, they are thinking of a different market.
With that in mind, of course the bike has a App which provides access to the Kymco NooDoe network which among other things, connects you to a network for fellow Kymco bike owners (not just Cozy riders).
Some features worth noting are around the battery.
Anyway, the survey is fairly simple asking about if Dealers think electric is a viable option in the UK and what price it could be sold at etc.

ECCity 50 Electric Moped Review: The Green and Economic Commute

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 00:08:00 +0000

By Dr Huw Kidwell (
Sister-in-law testing the ECCity 50

The bike costs around 40 pence to fully charge and although it is around £6,500 to buy it requires very little maintenance (tyres and brake pads) and would last for years.
My Experience

I would rate my overall experience with the bike as excellent.
Security was not an issue: a lock through the front brake disc immobilised the bike during all my journeys and was ample along with the steering lock.
Doing the Shopping

Some people might worry about the storage space on this bike.

	* USED *	* NEW *	Source
	Ford Fiesta 1.	Muvi Executive (2018)
Miles on Clock	60,000	0
Purchase Cost	£3,500	£3,745
Fuel Cost/15000 Miles	£1,500	£150	http://www.
Discs/Pads/Tyres *	£600	£285	http://www.
Service (2 Minor, 1 Major)	£475	£100	£50	£50
Tax	£395	£0
Insurance			Based on individual

Total	£6,520	£4,330

* Not Dealer Parts for Fiesta
Front Pads	30	20
Front Discs	70	30
Read Pads	40	20
Rear Discs	60	25
Tyres	200	70
Fitting	200	120
Total for Parts	600	285