They won't replace the 737 any time soon of course, but progress is progress.
https://harbourair.com/harbour-airs-all-electric-aircraft-op...
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetl...
- dubious IQ (dIQ) measuring
- incorrect accusation of “putting them down” immediately following an ad hominem attack
- unspecific “insight” that EVs sacrifice practical things to get distance, when the parent and OP were both basically saying the opposite: EVs sacrifice distance for practicality
Make for some expensive litter.
It’s worse than that. A recent Yale study found that—for an average car on the road—from $5 of gas you’re really only getting $1 of that energy to propulsion.
It’s 20%.
I was wondering how Guinness Record would deal with such a category, and the answer seems to be that they just don't. Most of their electric vehicle records have either a time limit, or no refueling/single charge limitation
e.g. https://guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/115107-greate...
https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-views/feature...
https://www.visordown.com/features/top-10s/top-10-longest-ra...
https://www.ducati.com/ww/en/accessories/ACC012304
Something like 350 mile range (lot of variables) once that's added on. Enough to get from Coldfoot to Prudhoe Bay (one of the harder routes to clear on a bike, historically).
So this extension functionally works as if your single tank just got larger. Might not be something that everyone cares about, but the value proposition over a jerrycan is clear.
1. Generally you don't need the excess range, and this thing seems like a relatively permanent modification, so you're dealing with the excess weight/bulk all the time, and getting the added benefit only when you actually need to do the long haul.
2. This Ducati thing is only 8 liters, and adds 40% to your range.
So a jerrycan would (more) easily be added/removed as needed, and holds 20 liters, doubling your range. You could even add two, to triple your range.
Also, there's the fact that a jerrycan costs about $40, while the Ducati tank costs... $1900!? Yikes -- yeah, I'm sticking with the jerrycan :-)
But I get it -- I've ridden with Gatorade bottles full of spare gasoline too (yes it'll eventually eat through the plastic, but not fast enough to matter in my experience.)
Samesies! I once ran out of gas on a GS-550, walked to a Circle-K, bought and drank a quart of milk (I'm not much for gatorade) then bought enough gas to lightly rinse out the paper carton and then fill it to take back to my bike. This was a long time ago, please don't judge me :-)
Electric aviation is not yet viable commercially, but it will be soon. I'm working at a company building electric aircraft, and one of our prototypes has done a flight of more than 380 miles. Note that this is a prototype, in ideal conditions, with a tailwind, last few miles were circling the airport within the glide cone, etc. The actual production vehicle range, with all of the safety margins, seats for passengers, passenger weight, etc, will be a lot less; but still, 150 miles is enough for many commercially viable trips, especially in dense areas like the BosWash corridor, or getting from suburbs to a long haul airport, or many others.
Electrification can also make viable new architectures, like VTOL, and the extra efficiency and longer maintenance intervals can drastically drive down operating costs; so there will be many trips that are economically viable in an eVTOL that wouldn't be in conventional airplanes (due to needing an airport) or helicopter (due to high fuel and maintenance costs).
We're a little bit quieter than some of the other players, as we're still a private company and are focusing more on engineering than marketing right now.
But the more amazing thing about a 4000km motorcycle ride is they weren't injured or killed by someone using their smartphone.
High speed head-on collisions could have been quite spectacular.
Reducing certain emissions is commendable... But not when you realize that the environmental damage from strip mining rare earth metals in developing countries is far worse.
As for this mini motorcycle, it's impressive that it still looks pretty decent and someone unfamiliar with this model might even mistake it for stock. I never quite understood why it's so hard to find even aftermarket tanks for bikes that get the range up to car range...I just want to go 500 miles on my bike without refueling. Put the gas in the frame AND into a 5+ gallon tank up top. Put gas into a portion of the seat. Put it up behind the headlight or in a big fender. Carrying jerry cans or even the bag style ones is just so bulky and inconvenient for overlanding on two wheels without a support vehicle carrying extra fuel.