Comments on: Plug-in electric scooter put to the test

By: Buster

Buster — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:12:31 +0000

I for one am all for electro scooters in urban scenarios. Most people, especially in many Asian cities, use it to drive max. some kilometers from one end to the city to another one. Battery life therefore wouldn’t be a big problem while air and noise pollution would decrease dramatically.

By: Roppongi Health

Roppongi Health — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:40:25 +0000

How about charging scooter from power grid ? There is power lines everywhere in country. You need just split second to charge that battery from 33kV grid, not 2 hours!!! Thats too much.

There should also be some kind of system to connect schooter to power grid. Some kind of long cables with weights at the end, so cable can be connected some 10m well above ground.

By: helical

helical — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:43:49 +0000

Iago … I think you may be onto something here!

By: kage

kage — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:43:11 +0000

HaHa 33 hours?!! It would be bether if they had go on foot, or bike.
But the idea is pretty nice. If they add some hydrogen engeni to powerup the battery it wold be nice.

By: Iago

Iago — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:08:04 +0000

If they ditch the heavy motor and batteries, then it would be much easier to pedal.

By: Mt. Man

Mt. Man — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:11:32 +0000

To add:

they should just add pedals anyway, so some could actually pedal it a little bit.
But when the bike is as heavy as the scooter would be – a lot of people would not be strong enough to move it by pedaling. But pedals would still be useful enough to get the thing off the road, I suppose!

By: Mt. Man

Mt. Man — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:08:42 +0000

helical,

You would think that mechanism would be easy to make. Unfortunately, to be able to power and MOVE something like that off a charge just by pedaling – you’d be pedaling for hours. The amount of energy generated from pedaling is not enough to power or move the bike+person, unfortunately – otherwise we would all be riding these already.

Same goes for the car. The amount of energy generated from the wheels turning to flip the alternator thus the battery to power the basic stuff like lamps = just is not enough to move the car which weights a ton and the people in it. The batteries are too heavy to begin with.

At least for now. Somebody needs to come up with a faster/easier chemical battery (read: cheap enough) that can save enough power from pedaling.

We’d all be flying to the Moon by then.

By: CPT. Charles

CPT. Charles — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:58:19 +0000

“It would seem that the plug-in scooter is a really cheap way to make short trips in areas without steep hills.”

Well, that kinda limits things, doesn’t it?

I realize Japan isn’t all mountains, but isn’t exactly Iowa either.

Ken Y-N: long bathroom breaks?

By: helical

helical — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:47:19 +0000

One could even add pedals so you could keep on charging the battery with a generator.

By: Vonskippy

Vonskippy — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:35:01 +0000

Maybe a really long extension cord would cut some time off that 33 hours.

By: The Overthinker

The Overthinker — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:49:20 +0000

I agree. Did they stop for the night somewhere? I could walk there in 12 hours….

By: Ken Y-N

Ken Y-N — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:39:50 +0000

How on earth did an ordinary scooter take 12 hours to go 141 km? Under 12 kph?