cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41241485

This could be huge for vehicle design as a whole.

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[–] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

What does that thing weigh is my very first question.

Also these ev guys and their ranges are never believable. I've owned multiple evs now, and none of them have gotten near advertised range. I always cut 25% as a rule from marketing bloat.

Even still 400km range would be huge. But if the thing weighs 800 lbs, maybe not so huge.

Edit: Devil's in the details. According to their website the specified 600km is a "city range," probably going 15km/hr. Highway range is 315km, with a 170lb rider going 90km/hr in perfect conditions (which never applies to a motorcycle). Realistically thats going to be under 200km. For $40k USD, and the bike weighs 520lbs btw (which isn't the end of the world).

I don't have range anxiety as much as I would have wallet anxiety here. I'll just stick with my gas bike, thank you very much. 1000nm torque would be hilarious, but that would be over $50k for me in Canada, and that's not so hilarious.

Add another flop to the table.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Almost bought a zero, but the lack of charging at my office and the distance involved.. sigh.

    Still excited to swoop through the mountains quietly someday.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    IF (huge if) their claims hold water and the tech is actually reliable long term (which probably means waiting for a bike that does not use a weird gadgety spokeless carbon hub wheel that is presumably going to cost as much as a regular bike to replace if you hit a pothole), then price aside it sounds perfectly capable of making any commute round-trip, unlike the Zero which has a relatively small range which gets way worse in winter (allegedly solid-state batteries are barely affected by temperature).
    Just plug it in when you get home and voilà; charging at work is a bandaid solution.

    ofc only people with more money than sense will drop 30 grand into a bike using unproven tech from an unknown company, but if their shit actually works then it hails the future of actually viable and affordable(ish) electric touring motorcycles that aren't just gimmicks a few years from now.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Sure, one can hope.

    In my case, the distance I needed to commute daily at the time was farther than level 1 charging could handle to even get me back home once I arrived at the site. I'd have to stop about 3/4 of the way back home every day, as I don't have a car.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Want! Would be a hell of a commuter option. Unfortunately the pricing is still huge, but compared to other bikes it’s pretty close; not a huge EV markup. The max range Pro model is $32k.

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  • 80 comments in c/technology@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 19 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

    What is the point in a $37,000 bike with SS battery and 600km of range. ICE bikes get about 200km a tank. No one rides 600km a day on a naked sport bike. If the point of SS batteries is fast charging , then why carry around 33 KWhr of overpriced battery?

    This is a bike designed by non motorcyclists and marketed on numbers. 1000nm instant torque? That's unrideable. 3.5 sec 0-60 is not fast for a motorcycle, so their math doesn't even make sense. It's just a bunch of numbers. 200kw charging? Who cares, and good luck finding a charger that will do that.

    Every premium price EV bike company has gone broke.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    I think the bike exists to sell the battery. I'm getting a strong feeling there is no intention for the bike to be profitable, but rather as a proof that what they're selling works by showcasing a real-world model that people can buy and drive.

    With their plans to out-scale Tesla in battery manufacturing, it seems to me that they're hoping to capture deals with EV manufacturers.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Your points are valid but those chargers are very common, probbaly the most common where I am. There are 400kw chargers cropping up too.

    Also I would hope that the range is so high to allow for the inevitable failure to achieve the stated range.

    But yeah everything else is laugh worthy

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Turn something this into a moderately off road capable adventure bike and I'm sold. The BMW and KTM guys will absolutely pay $20,000 for it, albeit maybe not $37,000.

    My KLR has about 200 miles of range per fill, if you're even the slightest bit careful with it, which is necessary for excursions out into the bush where there are neither gas stations nor charging points.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    Anyone have a non-video summary/article?

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Pulled the CC data from downsub, asked AI to summarize, then reviewed the CC to make sure it was accurate.

    It's mostly fluff centered around data about a couple of new packs and claimed ranges.

    20 kWh Pack

    • Range: 350 km
    • Charging power: Up to 100 kW
    • Adds 200 km of range in 10 minutes

    30 kWh Solid‑State Pack

    • Range: 600 km on a single charge
    • Charging power: Up to 200 kW
    • Adds 300 km of range in under 10 minutes

    Claims to be largest motorcycle battery of its kind

    SO they're decently large, can charge quickly, I'd be a bit surprised if they were getting those actual ranges in real-world scenarios.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    They are also 38,000 euro for the base model bike.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    That is wildly expensive for a emotercycle, but maybe not if they are legitimate solid state.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Even then, it's still wildly expensive if you compare it to other ICE motorcycles with similar specs.

    If a random person could buy three bikes that would outperform it for same price as one of these, then I just don't see how the market can support it

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  • [–] 58 points 10 months ago (19 children)

    I think it’s irresponsible of the Verge to tout an electric motorcycle’s range as “up to 600km”. It’s absolute fantasy.

    I have an electric dirtbike and a gas bike. My gas bike has an 11.1 L tank and can go about 360km per tank.

    The highest actual range I’ve seen on an electric motorcycle is about 100km of mixed use (highway and city).

    Solid state batteries have the potential capability of having almost double the power density as lithium ion. So approx 200-300km (maybe).

    Pretty solid but doubling THAT is just dishonest and in no way going to happen. You’re claiming to have more power density than internal combustion. That’s just straight up dishonest.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (10 children)

    I think it’s irresponsible of the Verge to tout an electric motorcycle’s range as “up to 600km”. It’s absolute fantasy.

    Reached 310.69km with 7% charge on the 20.2kWh battery remaining during a challenge in London.

    https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2025/april/verge-electric-bike-distance-record/

    It took 16 hours though, so that works out to around 19km/h or 12mph. 🐌

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    Yes so even gaming this by driving very slowly, the range isn’t even close

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago* (7 children)

    The 20kWh is the low end battery which they rate at 350km of range. The high end battery is 33kWh

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    Yes, assuming a linear scaling, 33kWh would get you 506km with some percentage available.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (4 children)

    They did still have 7% left though. So more like 540km.. And it's actually 33.3 so we get another 1% which brings us to 545... with almost no degradation over time or from running from 100% to 0% or in hot or cold weather. So I'd still say pretty darn good.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (3 children)

    Adding the extra weight of the battery will reduce the range but more importantly going 12mph is not a way of rating a street legal vehicle… it’s like bragging about a laptop having a 30 day battery life when it’s in standby. Drag is a function of velocity squared which means that going at even 45mph you are experiencing 14x the drag and at 60mph it’s 25x the drag

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    The batteries are actually lighter than the Lithium batteries in there previously. But yeah, we can put them in the same category with most EV makers when it comes to overstating range.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    They are claiming a weight of 400Wh/kg so the extra weight should be at least another 70lbs if it didn’t require any extra bracing which it probably does that while it may not be a lot for a 3000lb car it is sizeable for a 400lb bike

    it’s a lot worse than other EV makers misleading claims, because 12mph is literally a joke of a speed to test at considering that’s slower than a cyclist on a non motorized bike and it is not even considering a fast speed to run at.

    A still misleading but at least defendable claim would be if they did one at 25mph and called that their city range but 12mph is just an insulting claim

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago*

    It probably won't do that in anything less than perfect conditions, but it will still be far more than any other electricbike on the road today.

    It is probably 3x that of classical Lithium Ion already. It's roughly double that of usual NMC batteries, and still a good 50% better than the absolute best NMC.

    Combine that with no range degradation when consistently charging to 100% and discharging to 0%, no loss of capacity in hot or cold weather, and something like 20x the charge cycles of NMC/LiFePO4, and over the lifetime you will likely start seeing 4 or 5 times the capacity in later stages of vehicle ownerships

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    It's 600 km (in ideal conditions) <- this is the part they don't say.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    It doesn’t matter. It’s a lie. Ideal conditions and driving the bike at 19km/h achieves that. How many people are going to be driving a top speed of 19km/h on a bike? Their stats are physically impossible given the hardware they’re stating and are relying on people with little knowledge of real world range on electric motorcycles or charge density of solid state vs lion

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Maybe you're not dreaming big enough on what makes ideal conditions. The fraudulent Nikola company managed to film a semi "driving" a few km without a powertrain, by just letting it roll downhill. I bet there's a place that has a high enough altitude and smooth enough roads for a long downhill descent where 600km on a 300km battery is possible.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    "up to" is dishonest to start. They claim on some of their models 600+ km range. It is city mileage though. Solid state batteries claim 400wh/kg, and may be replacing 180wh/kg batteries. That can mean more than 2.5x range city due to reduced weight. The highway mileage is much lower though.

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago

    I'll belive it when a lab has verified the batteries are actually solid state. The CEO appears to be a grifter and they had no battery prototypes on hand at CES? Smells awfully like a scam.

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  • [–] 34 points 10 months ago (17 children)

    The rear wheel of the bike in the picture tells me all of this is completely fantasy.

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  • [–] 20 points 10 months ago (15 children)

    The hubless wheel is on their current models. It's basically their signature differentiator.

    There's reason to be skeptical of the company and its claims as a whole, but at least that particular feature has shipped and has been test driven by reviewers:

    https://thepack.news/11000-km-in-2-months-marc-travels-rides-the-verge-ts-across-europe/

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    Well thanks for correcting me, that is wild. I can't imagine it's actually pragmatic.

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  • [–] -2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

    At least it being a fully integrated hub(less) electric motor makes it a much more sensible of a solution than many other tries with all kinds of belt drives and gears and cogs and stuff.

    Even the tire change is pretty simple.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Adding a bunch of unsprung weight is a poor decision when it comes to handling though, and that's something pretty important in a motorbike that's trying to do more than just low speed commuting. Such a design will also be putting a lot of vibration through the motor components which is not good for longevity. It's more a case of going for the (admittedly distinctive) aesthetic rather than being sensible.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    Makes me wonder about the wheel's rotational inertia, too. In theory, a hubless wheel could be lower mass overall without the need for a center axle/hub and spokes connecting the outside to the center. But that's all weight saved in the center of the wheel with lower effect on overall rotational inertia. Visually, the picture that makes the thumbnail in this post shows that the brake disc has to be further from the center of the wheel, which I imagine adds a lot more weight (more material necessary for the overall brake disc being a larger circle) and a lot more rotational inertia (further from the center).

    Maybe the whole design itself can save weight in certain places that make up for the weight added in other places. But I just have a ton of questions, and am overall pretty skeptical of the long term potential of this design.

    Looks cool, though, I guess.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    The motor design has huge performance benefits. Power is like a solid disk motor of the same size. Their previous model claimed much faster 0-60 time, and so I don't get why it dropped, but if true, the discharge rate of battery simply isn't as high as NMC. That would also explain why they have to have both huge range and fast charge.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I watched that exact video. I still don't think it's ever more efficient to have a hubless wheel vs a good central bearing.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    more complex, more expensive, more prone to fail fromdirt entering gears, more strain on rims, and alignment in cornering suffers.

    There are good reason why real motorcycle companies avoid these designs that are best left as movie props.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    There is no advantage to a hubless wheel.

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Sure there is. There's a value to some people to look different. That translates to dollars.

    There's not a Performance advantage to a hubless wheel.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    Motorcycle buyers, especially sportbikes, don't take kindly to bullshit. Hubless wheels are heavy, have more wear components and are pointlessly complex. But pointless complexity is a requirement in EVs to justify the overprice.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    Doesn't need both fast charging and huge range. Knock $10k off the price for half the range is a much more appealing product. Battery tech in a much lighter sub 2000w ebike/powerstation is a much bigger win, as this is still 600lbs afaiu.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago
    [–] 10 points 10 months ago (8 children)

    But do they make loud wroom wroom noises? If not half of motorcyclists will not be interested.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    But there is something in that to be fair, it is a lifestyle, culture and hobby. I thought the livewire looked cool but I would say its novelty, I wouod find it difficult to see them as equals.

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  • [–] -4 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    I'll sell an add on speaker. Loud pipes save lives.

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Arwe there any non-"solid state" battery for motorcycles? What is the generation principle?

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    In the context of lithium-ion batteries, "solid state" means that there's no liquid electrolyte, rather than meaning there are no moving parts.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    I doubt these are actually solid state, more likely hybrid solid state.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    I agree. I’m very skeptical about their claims and so far I can’t find any evidence of 3rd party verification of anything. All the “news” about their batteries is just glorified press releases.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago
    [–] 1 point 10 months ago
    [–] 1 point 10 months ago (2 children)

    are solid state batteries even ready for mass production yet ?

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  • [–] -3 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Bikes are not a good investment in western countries with long winter seasons, it's dangerous and uncomfortable to ride in cold conditions, so stuff like this is purely for rich people to use as recreational toys in the summer

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    TIL I'm rich because I own a $2000 motorcycle, and that it's only a toy for use in the summer. I can't believe that someone just mansplained riding motorcycles in poor weather. Rain gear and insulated clothing has existed for a long time.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Plus heated gear and equipment exist. You can absolutely ride a motorcycle in Winter, it just kinda sucks.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Sucks in a fun way if you're a certain type of person. I've ridden through a lightning storm where my motorcycle couldn't go past 55mph due to a headwind. It was exciting, and super fun.

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    And how many other bikers do you see around you when you ride, 1 or 2 maybe, it's a niche hobby not a means of daily transportation for most, go visit any Asian country to see what using bikes as a daily transportation looks like, the streets are chock full of bikers and it's a mix of men and women, young and old

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    I wasn't saying it was a common thing to see others riding (which it is, as long as there isn't snow on the road), I was just saying people who ride aren't rich just because they own a motorcycle, and that it's possible to ride in the winter.

    I'm not sure what your point is about Asian countries, I am aware that two wheeled vehicles are a means of transportation.

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