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Re:EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted by notjulianjaynes on Monday September 05, 2022 @01:08AM (#32720762)
A 30 mph ebike under $2k is absolutely doable. That's the top speed of mine, built with a Craigslist hardtail MTB and a $200 hub motor kit, powered by an electric lawn mower battery I found in an ewaste bin (14s, 7.5ah Samsung 25R cells). This battery can propel me about 8-10 miles (depending on wind, hills, etc.) at full throttle without much pedaling.

The problem is 60 miles range @ 30 mph needs a lot of battery. You can't really pedal fast enough to add a meaningful amount of leg power here, and even if you could, the extra wind resistance compared to tucking your legs in is a wash at best.

There's certainly room for efficiency improvements on my bike, but either way, enough battery to do 60 miles at 30mph SHOULD cost at least $1200-1500. Now if you want to go 20 mph that's a different story.

Re:EV adoption in US is happening faster than predicted by benj111 on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:07AM (#32722516)
Enclosed suggests fairings which suggests better aero.

Aero drag really kicks in at 20+ mph so I would have thought it would be doable.

Plus capable of 30mph and actually doing that all the time are 2 separate things. There's still going to be the slow pootling. So you can still peddle then. Plus you could hear it to actually pedal at 30mph