Your numbers are completely wrong. Zero has a bike for $12k https://zeromotorcycles.com/model/zero-fx and BMW sells bikes that go well into the $20k ranges. You can get a Surron for under $4k, but it's more like a cross between a bicycle and motorcycle.
I do agree with the general premise, that electric is more expensive. There needs to be more competition to drive prices down like is happening for cars.
>but it's more like a cross between a bicycle and motorcycle.
and that's kinda the reason that the value proposition for electric motorbikes isn't very good. if you can give up the requirement of "i want to drive on the highway", an electric bicycle is going to do what you need for a fraction of the cost.
electric motorbikes lean more towards toys than practical tools, so they're priced like toys.
Maybe more like a cross between a motocross bike and a street bike— it's a dual sport like the Honda CRF450. I wouldn't take it on a road trip but I'll bet it would handle an average highway commute just fine.
yeah, that's what i'm saying. an FXE is an e-motorbike, not an e-bicycle. if you didn't need highway speed, you could have got a top-tier commuter-style ebike for $3k instead of the $12k an FXE costs.
You can get a "deathwish" scooter from Alibaba that can go 55mph for $3000 also.
The problem is that the electric motorcycle market isn't big enough to enjoy efficiencies of scale, so the only ones that exist cater to the wealthy/luxury clients.
The value proposition for motorcycles is really not as impressive either. The instant electric torque is more of a safety issue on bikes, because you can already trivially pop wheelies on regular gas-powered motorcycles.
On top of that, they have better range, because the battery capacity on a motorbike is limited by the width of the human hip, not highway lane.
The best use case for that is probably the thing you linked, Surron, which is an e-MTB essentially, where high torque is really nice for going up hills (and isn't really required for 60mph+ cruising on freeways)
I think the biggest issue with electric motorbikes is infrastructure because, at least from what I see, motorbikes aren't used the same way cars are.
I think they should work great for commuting, if you don't live too far away. But then, people would want to use the bike for other things, too, like going on road trips.
And that's where it hurts. You usually don't take road trips on the main highways because it's boring as hell. You'll take smaller roads, which often don't yet have any reasonable charging infrastructure. Combined with the shorter ranges, nobody is really going to risk it, so they'll just buy a gas bike. Hell, even with my gas bike's tank which is on larger side (19.5 liters), I sometimes have to cart around "safety gas", which I've had to use once. And no, it's not a dirt bike or anything, the only time it went off the asphalt was to go inside a hotel yard.
I think this is the reason why, at least where I live in Europe, you see next to no "serious" electric bikes, but practically all smaller ones are now electric: these bikes don't do anything apart commuting anyway, so electric is great for that.
> But then, people would want to use the bike for other things, too, like going on road trips.
I have an e-bike, I can take it on the train, go to some random town and explore. You can buy 'S-pedelecs" which are basically mopeds in bicycle form-factor - they have powerfull motors and go 45 km/h.
Then high-end electric motorcycles make sence
But lower end electric motorbikes, I dont get. You camt tale them on oiblic transport, they need a socket to charge, they cant use car-standarss for charging, and they dont have the range. So they seem to be in purgatory.
I agree with your point about taking the bike (bicycle) on a train and whatnot.
My point was about motorbikes. Which, as you say, have all the inconveniences of a full-blown motorbike, without the nice things, and the smaller ones aren't materially better than a souped-up e-bike.
I do agree with the general premise, that electric is more expensive. There needs to be more competition to drive prices down like is happening for cars.