Cars, Trucks and let's not forget … Motorbikes
Intro: 6 weeks ago I had stones delivered. The tractor left a blob of dirty oil behind. I scooped up the earth, in disgust. I know it goes to landfill but not on my land. Please excuse me. I saw another blob and said I leave it until I sort out my own combustion engines. It grated on my eyes for a week and then I jumped. I changed a 150cc petrol motorbike for a 50cc equivalent electric scooter. I have it a month.
It had been a plan to go EV for 2 main reasons:
– The climate
- Use some of the surplus power from my off-grid solar system.
I will not go back to combustion engine for different reasons (in priority):
- The silence. I can hear the birds while accelerating out of a corner. How soon before we find the noise of combustion engines morally wrong, not just their tailpipes?
- The acceleration. Scary at first and remains truly pleasurable (even though I went from 150cc to 50cc equivalent).
- The running cost. It costs me 2.24€ for 1000km (3,82$ per 1000 miles) using household electricity (our household electricity is 0.263 €/kWh). The sample driving was 50% with 2 passengers, 30% up and down steep hills and I was not trying to drive particularly efficiently.
EV are much simpler machines. They will be cheaper to make than combustion engines; It's just a matter of scale and desire. Car, truck and motorbike makers of the world watch out – China is making EV's with superior spec's bar a few notable exceptions. If only they would sell to Greece and elsewhere.