Battery Vehicle Society

50kg! You realise that it isn't road legal as an electrically assisted pedal cycle at that weight?

That might not sound a big deal but if you were involved in an accident and the police got involved you could end up being prosecuted for driving an unroadworthy vehicle without tax, MoT or insurance.

Trust me. It has been known.

Dont know where Nikki got her 49kgs from. The Sukura 200 weights in at only 39Kgs. So its well within the weight limits.
Regarding fitting a LiPo battery -- this would be a total waste of money not to mention the carbon footprint left. The Sukura is basically a poorly made throw-away piece of kit. What do you expect for £450
To be quite honest the Sukura's carbon foot print is larger Kg for Kg that most family size cars. at least out of a Focus of Astra you would get perhaps 12-15 years life. And after that the car is disposed of in the correct manner and mostly re-cycled. Dont forget Europen car makers have to make a massive percentage of their cars recycable, unlike the Chinese with their Sukura's and other poorly made cycles.

Hi Dave,

I was doing it from memory - which as I recall was just under whatever the legal limit is...

my fault !

Bah! My Sakura was made in 2004 as far as I can tell and is still going strong. It's well made, fairly easy to maintain, and about a trillion times better for the environment than any car, even those ones that are made of wood and run on hemp oil and wind power :-p

Be interesting to get all the Sakura owners together and compare notes and have a rally or something... they're a pretty cool bike when you get into them, they just need a slight performance improvement such as could easily be supplied by the new battery chemistries (if they werent' all so insanely expensive) and they'll be perfect!

electricvehicles

The Sukura is basically a poorly made throw-away piece of kit. What do you expect for £450
To be quite honest the Sukura's carbon foot print is larger Kg for Kg that most family size cars. at least out of a Focus of Astra you would get perhaps 12-15 years life. And after that the car is disposed of in the correct manner and mostly re-cycled. Dont forget Europen car makers have to make a massive percentage of their cars recycable, unlike the Chinese with their Sukura's and other poorly made cycles.

I'd seriously query your facts there. How can 39kilos of plastic and batteries have a higher "carbon footprint" than half a ton of car that easily consumes a lot more than 39 kilos in tyres, parts, oil and petrol in its lifetime? and emits TONS of Co2 in that time? What a ridiculous claim to make.

At the risk of starting a flame war, I'd say you've been tragically misinformed, even lied to outright. Basic physics suggests that a tiny electric moped that does 15 mph is obviously more environmentally friendly than even the smallest car, electric or otherwise. (Well, unless it's a C5!) "Kilo for kilo" you are moving half a ton of weight at incredible speeds in a car while pumping out a devil's brew of pollutants, just to move one person around, even if you fill the car with occupants it still does not add up. Go out on the streets and look at cars more objectively... For short journeys such as those the electric moped is designed for the car is even worse, as cars do not acieve peak efficiency until they have done a good few miles. I have over three thousand miles on my Sakura and it's still going strong today after five years of service (bought it second hand though - serial number suggests it was made in 2004), how can a car ever hope to compete with that?

I don't wish to offend but I am offended by your statement. Please, tell me where you are getting your facts because they sound like pure auto industry propaganda to me.