World's First Production Hybrid Motorcycle To Hit Market In India

bluemanlines writes "The Indian company Eko Vehicles has announced the development of the world's first production hybrid motorcycle, called the ET-120. In a short time this motorcycle will run on the Indian streets, offering about 280 miles per gallon with a top speed of 40 miles per hour."

Comments

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[srothroc]

I think it would sell well here in Japan, where it's not uncommon to see people on scooters and small motorcycles in smaller cities and rural areas. I've seen uglier ones around here too, though fashion-conscious people might balk at buying it. It could also be a popular bike if it had a spring-loaded rack on the back for deliveries...

Japan Post uses tons of motorcycles for its mailmen -- perhaps they would be a good market as well.

Moped, not Motorcycle

[darthflo]

Wired has slightly better coverage.

This is at best a moped, a far cry even from 2-stroke 125cc motorcycles. The ET-120 has some 70 ccs of displacement, producing (that's according to TFA) enough power to reach a top speed of 40 mph, no actual numbers on power or torque given. A modern 125cc 2-stroke motorcycle will produce some 33 bhp of power, 20 Nm of torque and reach top speeds in excess of 100 mph. At 280 mpg, its fuel consumption is quite nice, though, especially when compared to some 45 mpg one would get out of a standard 125cc motorcycle.

Why Hybrid but not full electrical?

[sam0737]

In China where electrical scooter is so common that could be bought in USD $100 to USD $300 depends on the performance.
Supermarket carries a large selections that looks like anything look like a bike, to something in between, to something that looks exactly like a gas scooter. 30mph is norm but I think they have model going up to 40.

Most model has detachable battery, so you could take it out and just bring the battery box indoor for plugin charging. A single charge should give you 20+ miles range (Sorry I don't own one so it's a bit guessing for this number). Some models include traditional bike padels for backup.

I don't exactly see the point of hybrid if full electrical scooter is just so mature. Do you really want to maintain two set of systems? Or unless you really need 200 miles driving range, I guess.

Motorcycle Fuel Consumption

[RotateLeftByte]

As a Bike rider since 1969 I can attest to the worsening fuel consumption figures in modern bikes. My 1969 650cc Triumph TR6 in touring trim gets over 80mpg. My 2004 780cc Triumph Bonnieville gets 50mpg My 1963 650cc Bonnievile gets 60mpg with 10.5:1 Compression pistons and race tuning. Many high performance bike these days have worse consumption than many cars. This is a crazy situation. I'd probably plump for a leccy bike rather than a hybrid for my commute to work (Some 30miles each way) Seeing them racing round the "Island" in june was really great.

Whoa!

[hackshack]

Holy hell, that is ugly. Designers musta said, "we need to take a Honda Ruckus, slap a dirt-bike front end on it, and put an ammo box filled with batteries in the middle." Only thing missing is the duct tape!

But for the price...

[hackshack]

OK, I actually R'd the FA - you know, the text part of it - and feel like I should amend my comment. Basically they made a hybrid Honda Cub-ish-looking bike for $900. Though hideous, that's pretty sweet!
To non-moto people: in a nutshell, the Cub is sort of the VW Bug of Asia, except it's unnaturally reliable. (Skip to 5:00 for the dropping-it-off-a-building part.)

Re:Side benefit

[quarterbuck]

India had mopeds for a long time and the inspiration for this one seems to be the TVS 50
It has been in production for over 30 years and used to be most popular moped in India. This is actually smaller than the Honda cub (which was sold as Bajaj M80 in India) and is supposedly based on an indigenous design - though TVS would later collaborate with Suzuki to introduce their motorcycles in India.
. The MZ through its many evolutions actually became Rajdoot in India, which was a full motorcycle, not a moped. The tunturi and its variants became Suvega mopeds in India.