When it comes to electric vehicles, the Tesla Roadster and Chevrolet Volt get all the love. But there are other EVs rolling around, and they're balancing on two wheels.
Since 2007, when Vectrix of Middletown, R.I., first rode onto the scene with its battery-powered Maxi Scooter, a growing number of U.S. start-ups have entered the plug-in two-wheeler market. They've invested millions of dollars in vehicles, many of which are poised for production within a year.
Led by pioneers with impressive resumes, these firms predict growth in spite of the down economy, and they're laying claim to niche markets with such boasts as "first" and "fastest" as they stake out territory in what many believe is the future of transportation.
"It's amazing how inefficient the vehicles we're driving today really are," said Forrest North, founder and chief executive of Mission Motor Co., a San Francisco company that unveiled the prototype for its 150-mph, 150-mile-range electric motorcycle at the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference in Long Beach last month. "Electricity is just so many orders of magnitude more efficient that it's the only way to go," said North, a former mechanical designer for Tesla and leader of Stanford University's solar car team in the mid-1990s.
Like many EV entrepreneurs, North, 33, had looked into hydrogen and biodiesel as power sources but found them impractical. Hydrogen is abundant, but turning it into fuel and developing a distribution infrastructure are costly. Biodiesel can take more energy to produce than it generates.
With electricity, the infrastructure already exists: Electrical outlets are abundant. Battery technology is also improving about 8% each year, North said, allowing bikes to easily upgrade once the chemistry comes along. Already, electric two-wheelers get the equivalent of about 300 to 500 miles per gallon. As technologies improve, they'll be able to generate even more energy with less weight and cost.
Billed as "the world's fastest production electric sport bike," Mission's debut product is called the Mission One. It is scheduled to ship in early 2010, at an estimated retail price of $68,000 -- most of which is attributable to a large lithium-ion battery pack designed to compete with a gas-powered, performance-oriented sport bike.
