It’s no secret that electric alternatives to a lot of modern-day stables, including but not limited to motorcycles and scooters. The need to switch from petrol/diesel engines to electric comes from both a requirement to be more environmentally friendly and, in conjuncture with this, to meet the growing restrictions in cities. In this article, we are going to look into electric motorcycle costs.
More and more places, even major cities like London, are charging more tax for petrol/diesel vehicles to run in city centers in order to help combat rising carbon emissions.
So for this reason, more people have been investing in electric cars, motorcycles, and mopeds. But once you’ve forked out the money to buy an electric moped, is that where the cost ends?
Unfortunately, just like the cost of gas motorcycles, the electric motorcycle costs include additional costs like maintenance or charging costs.
Although there are additional costs, you’ll find that they are a lot lower than what you might expect to pay for a gas motorcycle. The article will review the initial and ongoing costs of owning an electric motorcycle.
Average Electric Motorcycle Cost
There is a pretty big difference in electric motorcycle costs, so there’s no easy way to put in exactly what you might be looking at paying for.
For example, some might be under $2k, but the very best could be near $40k, so really the average electric motorcycle cost is whatever you can afford to budget for it.
That said, a lot of mid-range vehicles average out at around $8k-$10, so if you’re looking for something that is very good quality without completely breaking the bank, that’s probably about the price that you should be expecting to pay.
Conversely, the average electric motorcycle costs of a decent motorcycle for beginner riders is going to be $5k-$10k, whereas bikes for experienced riders will be more like $10k-$35K.
Again, you’re going to be able to find a motorcycle that suits you no matter what your budget is. However, even for basic electric motorcycles, you’re probably going to need to spend a little bit more, just because the technology that powers them is a little more complex and expensive to manufacture.
Comparing Cost Per Mile For Gas And Electric
Now we’ve looked at electric motorcycle costs, let’s compare with gas motocycles. This doesn’t need to be a massively complex thing to figure out, we just need to look at what the average cost per mile is for a gas-powered motorcycle, and then compare it to the average cost per mile for an electric motorcycle.
A decent average from the majority of commuters riding a gas-powered motorcycle is probably somewhere around $0.40 per mile.
Compared to this, on an electric motorcycle, you pay for electricity per kWh, which in California for example is $0.17. Then you need to multiply that by the amount of kWh your battery holds and then divide it by the number of miles you can get on the battery.
So, on average, with an average-sized battery, you’ll probably be looking at about $0.02 per mile, when traveling on highways.
Now we all know that $0.40 is a bigger number than $0.2, so it’s easy to see that the ongoing cost of electricity to recharge your batteries is much, much lower than refilling your gas tank. You do, however, need to recharge a lot more often, as electric motorcycles don’t generally get very good miles per kWh.
With this in mind, you can also see what over a period of a few years you’ll definitely have made your money back in switching from gas to electric, for definite.
Comparing Maintenance on Gas and Electric
It’s pretty well known that there is a lot less maintenance to consider for an electric motorbike, and this is generally because there are fewer parts to fix. However, there are still pretty important things that you need to consider.
For example, you’ll still need to replace the brake pads in an electric motorcycle, and you’ll also need to replace the belt drive or chain on some electric motorcycles, just like on a dirt bike, for instance.
Other than that, there isn’t really much else to think about. Maybe it’ll need lubing occasionally and the headlights might go out, but you’re basically set. Although you will also need to make sure you keep it clean, like with anything.
On the other hand, there are LOADS of maintenance issues that you need to consider when it comes to a regular gas motorcycle. Basically just because there are a lot more moving parts in an internal combustion engine like on a motorcycle.
So realistically, electric bikes are going to be a lot cheaper to ride in the long run when compared to a gas-powered motorcycle. This means that by the time comes to replace something you won’t mind so much because there’s been so little other maintenance to worry about.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is that even though it might be expensive to get started or switch to an electric motorcycle, and even though you’ll lose out on the satisfying roar that a gas-powered engine makes, it really is a lot more economically and environmentally savvy to make that switch.
You’ll not only be saving a lot of money and time since you won’t have to worry about replacing a fan belt every year or so, but you’ll also be doing your bit to save the planet, and really, doesn’t that make it all worth it?
We hope this article on electric motorcycle costs was useful!
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