Saturday, August 30, 2014

Twike - Don't Dismiss the Electric CarBike Too Quickly

The Twike is hideously expensive, looks like it was lost out of a Michael J. Fox movie, and seems like another millennial over-engineered crapshoot.

But.

As nearly as I could tell from the article, these batteries are recharged by pedaling and not by plugging them into a wall socket.  The batteries are still hideously-poisonous and represent a significant problem in disposal but the ongoing drain to existing systems is replaced by muscle.

Plus they look kind of cool.  (Mother Nature Network: What's a Twike? It's half-bike, half-electric car)

Yep, German engineers.  Suck it, Detroit.

But.

They work with an advanced battery design team at the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering.  That's where Neil Armstrong worked when he retired from NASA, definitely a high-power crew.

So, vas you effer in Zinzinnati?  (That slogan is used a LOT around Oktoberfest time)

Diese ist ein elektrische Motorroller??

Update:  I looked it up:  Elektro-Fahrrad.  Diese ist ein ElektroFahrrad.  Sehr cool.  (Tip:  Germans say cool if something is cool and they say kühl if something is not warm.  I hear fucking cool a lot and that's funny every single time.  Das ist fucking cool, mein Bruder.)

For $1000, you get the most ultra-fantastic pedal bicycle of all time.
For another $26,000 you get the most ultra-fantastic electric bicycle of all time ... and you don't get wet.

Unless you consider the soakage of the $26,000.

Let the Foxies whine about the cost as new development is always high.  There's another marketing for about $6,000 so eventually there's a stable selling price.  Many like to call that a 'price point' as if that is somehow different from 'price' and it's worth about another $30K plus per year to use one term rather than the other.  Your dictionary is your friend.  It would be good if corporate folk used one sometimes but ... perhaps I digress.

No comments: