A person working a low wage job, working 12 or 16 hour days burned-out may pop into a fast food restaurant for a quick burger. An executive with time to spare and money to burn may have time to cook their own meal with high quality ingredients.

It's the same for electric vehicles. You save on costs since it is cheaper to "fuel" it but the initial cost and the lack of charging stations is a problem right now. If you have the money and the resources it's great but right now not everyone has that ability.

I can certainly see it eventually that vehicles will be all be electric. But for now it's too expensive for working poor or even middle class, at least in my region. So for now it's fast food.

A schoolteacher living in North Bend isn't going to moped 30 miles down a freeway to get to her workplace in Seattle.

As opposed to a 40 minute drive. It's truly a wonder that poor Americans aren't falling over head-over-heels to get on the non-automobile commute bandwagon. The bandwagon that either requires tripling their commute time, or living somewhere they can't afford.

In next week's discussion of the subject, we will look at the trade-offs of suggesting that the peasantry, when they lack bread, should turn to eating cake.

Motorcycle wise, if you want to see the limitations its all very evident on this stage. Cars can pack on the weight and hide it well but the same cannot be said for motorcycles. I don't know of any brand using a liquid cooled battery pack which means longevity of current offerings is questionable.

EV cars are more than capable of holding their own against petrol cars but upfront cost, charging opportunities, and range in cold weather, are still issues for many buyers. EV motorcycles and scooters are still fair weather affairs with inherent limitations of air cooled pack.

It's a humble car in pretty much every regard, but the torque is just incredible. It wizzes and leaves any petrol/ sport car behind at the red light.

Not that's of any uses but it's always fun.

It's a lot of fun, I ride it more than my cbr, but it does blur the lines of bike and motorcycle which can be tricky.

People buy Nius here and there, and have them confiscated regularly every few months. Niu is not ok for me, not as comfy as maxi scooters, nor fast as 150cc.

If I will commit to buying a proper electric moped, I would like not to have it being seized every few months.

Adding to the confusion, mopeds from neighbouring municipalities, may or may not be let into some areas of "peripheral districts" depending on legal technicalities. You may have your moped impounded in Baoan centre, but can drive safely in Baoan if you have moped numberplate from a neighbouring rural locality, and do not stick into "centre."

In practice, police impounds a moped first, and thinks later

But many European countries have wind farms, and decent solar. Europe is way greener, energy-wise, than the US - still has a long way to go, sure, but for sure electric vehicles stand a much better change of a green-source advantage in most of Europe over pretty much anywhere at all in the US.

Looked into the Unu for my father, but as he is nearing retirement, the old petrol scooter will probably be good for another two or three years.

I for myself would love something like a 125ccm scooter with electric engine. Do you know if there is something like that on the market?

https://cezeta.com

Somehow like the Jetsons, where everything was modern but with a view on how people at that time thought "modern" would look like.

One could argue about the price, but around 15k Euro isn't too expensive after all.

These only appear to be available in Germany, it seems: https://unumotors.com/en/product.

I wonder what the U.S. equivalent is.

For city driving it seems absolutely perfect in terms of performance, convenience, and most importantly: price.

Looks really slick as well. I'm loving the different color options. Too bad you can only pick one stock ;P

Your neighbours love you now.

Its definitely the case that the torque and power aren't there - yet - but its also true that you can feel the machine wants to do more when the soft-limits kick in.

For some reason I don't understand, they're allowed to use most bike paths. That means they overtake the bicycles (and I don't like being overtaken with little clearance by larger, heavier vehicles) and leave a trail of fumes all along the cycle path. They're naturally going to be first in line at the traffic lights, spewing more fumes for the cyclists behind them.

On my commute, I'll change my route if there's a moped ahead.

(Cars are bad too, but they're not in my face, and seem to have much better emissions controls.)

Literally: https://www.airparif.asso.fr/actualite/detail/id/255

I'm checing a Torrot Muvi now, which is around 3K€...