Range Anxiety
There are electric motorcycles that claim to get over 100 miles of range, but if you read the motorcycle forums, you might be shocked to hear just how exaggerated those claims are. Consumers are already suspicious of electric vehicle range claims. This situation is made much worse for the electric motorcycle industry by the Motorcycle Industry Council's (MIC) adoption of range tests that do not reflect real world electric motorcycle riding.
The MIC is the non-profit industry trade association that coordinates motorcycle manfacturers.
Your Mileage May Vary (a lot)
You have to first understand that electric motorcycles are very efficient at low speeds, but very inefficient at high speeds. This drastically affects the range at different speeds. The range at 70 mph can be one third of the range at 20 mph. This is exactly the opposite of gasoline cars.
Motorcycles are much lighter than cars, but they also have much worse aerodynamic drag numbers than cars. Motorcycles are not fully enclosed bodies like cars. Stops and starts don't affect the range nearly as much as speed. The faster you go, the drag increases with the square of speed. In other words, if you double your speed, the drag increases four times. This causes the range of an electric motorcycle to be much worse at highway speeds than city driving.
The other factor that affects the range is the efficiency of the motor, controller and battery. When high current is required, these components waste a lot of energy giving off heat. Pushing through the wind at 70 mph takes a lot of power on a motorcycle.
City driving is made even more efficient by EV regenative braking. This just adds to the difference between city and highway range numbers. In general, consumers don't expect that the range difference between city and highway to be in the opposite direction compared to gas cars. Furthermore, they do not understand why there is a vast difference in those range numbers.
The lesson here is that range and speed numbers cannot be separated. Headlines that claim over 100 miles of range do not tell the whole story.
Real World Range
Simply State The Range At 30 and 70 mph
A simple solution is to state the range at 30 mph constant speed and 70 mph constant speed. It still is going to be a "best case" kind of range, but at least it's easy to understand. Stop and start driving is not as important to evaluate because it doesn't majorly affect the range like in a gas car. It would be even better to redue these ranges by some fixed percentage just like the EPA does for cars.
Motorcycle riding is about having fun and that means spirited riding. The MIC test does not account for spirited riding. An electric motorcycle is eco-friendly and economical, but it should also be fun. You need to be able to pull away from traffic at stoplights and zip around cars without worrying about how it affects the range. The electric motorcycle industry has to come up with better standards that reflect real world motorcycle riding so buyers can know what to expect.
6-7 Miles Per Kwh
One way to quickly estimate the average range of an electric motorcycle is to multiply the capacity of the battery (in kilowatt hours) times either 6 or 7 miles (10 or 11 kilometers). Use 6 miles for more upright motorcycles with poor aerodynamics and 7 miles for sportbikes with better aerodynamics. For a 9 kwh motorcycle with upright riding position, that yields about 54 miles. From that number you can adjust it up or down for speed and riding style. You still have to account for how much your range will vary due to speed, but at least you are starting with a range number that is going to be closer to your average range.
100 Miles Real Range is the Goal
We think 100 miles of real range on an electric motorcycle is what most people want. This is about an hour or so of saddle time. For most riders, when a trip is longer than an hour, it's more comfortable to drive a car. Figuring the battery capacity backwards, this equates to 14 kwh for a sportbike or 17 kwh for an upright motorcycle. That's a much bigger battery than what's currently on the market, but we think that it will be the turning point for electric motorcycle sales.
Is The EPA UDDS Derived Range Test Realistic?
The EPA understands that it's not a realistic test for gas cars so they reduce the UDDS mileage numbers by 10% to better reflect real world gas car driving. Recently, the EPA has made an effort to make electric car range tests more accurate. The range test results are reduced by around 30% to better reflect real world electric car driving. As far as we know, the electric motorcycle industry doesn't make the same or any effort to adjust the range numbers to better reflect real world electric motorcycle riding. Given the aggressive riding style of most motorcyclists, an even more aggressive reduction would be appropriate.
The Highway Test for an electric motorcycle is something that is in development. One manufacturer has created a highway range number that is derived in part from the UDDS City Range number. When you look at the formula that they use, you can see how it has a very low average speed, but is touted as a highway range. In this case they report a Highway range of 63 miles, but from their own data you can see that the electric motorcycle only went 45 miles at 70 mph. In other words, you can only ride for 38 minutes at 70 mph. This is the same vehicle that proudly reports a 114 mile City range rating.