Police electric

The savings with riding electric are huge! In money, time and environmentally.  As an example, if you are doing 6000 km a year on a Spark 3 you would pay a lot less on average every month and could save around R5,000 a year. That’s R25,000 in 5 years back in your pocket.

EWIZZ saving R23,000 – 5000 km year

EWIZZ saving R40,000 – 10000 km year

EWIZZ saving R60,000 – 15000 km year

EWIZZ saving R95,000 – 20000 km year

Check out our article Electric scooters cost you much less than gas scooters for an explanation of the reasons why electrics are so much cheaper.

How come I save so much?

The concept is actually very simple. Electric scooters may be more expensive to buy outright, but the servicing, fuel and depreciation costs of gas (petrol) scooters make them much more expensive to own. Electrics usually work out around 50% to 75% less for the real per km cost.

The low purchase price of a gas scooter is just a way to sucker you in….  Just like with a cell phone, the real cost is coming later….  Overall gas scooters can end up costing you around twice as much as an electric scooter.

There is very little servicing on an electric scooter and it doesn’t need doing very often (every 10,000 km). The only main moving parts in the power production and drive train are the wheels, there are no belts, chains, pistons or gears to wear out and no filters, spark plugs or oils to change and no valves or clutches to adjust. Less servicing means less cost, less trips to the garage and more time on the road.

Electric scooters do have batteries that eventually wear out, but with our latest Lithium ion batteries there are fleet examples of these bikes doing over 50,000 km a year and still going strong. From lab battery testing we expect to get over 100,000 km from one set, that is why we warrantee the Lithium ion batteries for 3 years or 50,000 km’s (whichever is reached first).

The drastically reduced running costs and better residual values simply means electric scooters cost you much less.  So don’t be put off with the higher purchase price.

The real financial hit with petrol scooters comes later in all that servicing, fuel and depreciation. The electrics also produce only half the emissions of the gas bikes (this is because of the way Eskom generates most of our power with coal) so the electric scooters are much better for our environment and if you can charge off solar then you are completely zero emission. Electrics are better for your pocket, better for our environment and better for our health.

Basically, they are just better.

For more information and the detail behind these comparisons just contact us here.

Care of the environment is an important consideration for us all. ewizz electric vehicles are zero emission, clean & energy efficient technology and running an electric vehicle is driving a cleaner and healthier future for us all.

Emissions

Although electric vehicles are zero emission technology that doesn’t mean there are not emission from using them. This is because of the way we generate the energy to fill the batteries. If most of the power generation is via dirty sources, such as coal, then emissions are created, but this is still much less than gas (petrol) vehicles. As we move our centralised and local power generation to cleaner, and renewable, technologies then these vehicles automatically get cleaner too. So we can get there with electrics in a way gas vehicles never will.

Electric vehicles can be recharged from solar power, for example with local solar recharging systems tied into a buildings power network. This means that what the solar array produces offsets the building and vehicle charging needs, but there is always power available, via the grid, to power the building and charge the vehicles when the solar array is not delivering power. Whatever the solar panel array produces is an emissions offset.

Solar energy is getting cheaper not more expensive to produce, imagine energy prices going down and not being so reliant on central production, that is the future with solar energy. This is happening all over the world. For an example just take a look at what is happening in Germany! Oil, on the other hand, is getting more and more expensive as demand increases, extraction costs increase and supply diminishes.

Energy efficient technology

The reason electric vehicles are such a good choice is because they are much more efficient than gas (Petrol) vehicles, for the majority of our usage they are around 10 times more efficient on average.  EWIZZ electric scooters and electric motorcycles have an equivalent efficiency of 360 km/litre. This is because they are not wasting large amounts of energy in heat and noise. Gearboxes & internal combustion engines have significant energy losses and generate a lot of heat. Water cooling and radiators are specifically designed to waste that heat energy. This is all energy from the fuel that you have paid for but is being wasted because of the inefficiency of gas vehicle technology. Electric vehicles also have the opportunity for energy saving and recapture technologies such as regenerative braking systems (REGEN) like the KERS system in Formula 1 motor racing.

“EWIZZ electric scooters and electric motorcycles have an equivalent efficiency of 360 km/litre.”

EWIZZ electric scooters are much more efficient at lower speed, especially in town driving, whereas petrol scooters only become relatively efficient at a higher speed. This is partly because they waste a lot of energy in braking and in heat and friction when sitting in traffic. For example a Volt 6 F electric motorbike driven at 50-60 km/h with an 85 kg rider can achieve 155 km on one charge with a mix of flat and hill riding. At that speed the electric scooter would use 7% of the fuel, of the gas scooter, and be 14 times more efficient.

Less waste

Electric scooters don’t have many of the wasteful components of gas or diesel engines. This means servicing is at much longer intervals and much cheaper. When you ride electric here are some that you just won’t need anymore:

• Fuel – ewizz electrics don’t use gas (petrol) or diesel.  So no more smoke or emissions coming out of the back of your vehicle. This leads to reduced local smog and pollution which is better for our health. Also, we don’t have all the environmental issues associated with the fuel excavation, production and transportation.
• Oils – Our electric scooters and motorbikes don’t have an internal combustion engine, gearbox or differential oils. They need almost no oils or grease except a little for lubrication of the brakes, bearings etc. Almost nothing in comparison.
• Filters – There are no air or fuel filters to replace.
• Gears – Our electric scooters and motorbikes don’t need a gearbox or gears. This reduces weight, servicing and increases efficiency.
• Belts, Chains, Sprockets – Nope don’t need these either, thus saving energy, servicing and oils.
• Brakes – The brake pads last much longer because with the electric you now use regenerative braking to slow down most of the time. So instead of is every 6000 km it’s 10,000 km.
• Exhausts – Electrics don’t have these, so zero emissions coming from your vehicle now and no chance of burning yourself on it!
• Radiators – Only small amounts of heat are produced by the electric motors and controllers so there is no need for large cooling systems.  Only some of the higher power scooters and motorbikes have small water cooling systems with antifreeze.
• Starter motors – Electrics don’t need these.  So there is less to wear out and no need to worry about starting issues.
• Spark plugs – Don’t need these!
• Clutches – There are no gears, gearboxes or clutches. So no clutch plates or belts to wear out and change.  With ewizz electric scooters the rear wheel is the motor and this is brushless which means nothing wears out.  They just works on magnetism, magic!

That’s ewizz clean technology… saving money, time and our environment.

Reuse and recycle

Nearly all of the materials in the electric scooters are reusable or recyclable.  Where we can reuse or recycle we do.  Below is a list of some of the areas where we can do this.

• Lead acid Batteries – These are pretty much completely recyclable locally.  96% of the materials can be reused.
• LiFeYPO4 Batteries – These are not recyclable here yet but are recyclable, and are being recycled in Europe. However, shipping them there doesn’t make environmental sense.  However there is good news, our LiFeYPO4 batteries will last a long time. Lab testing at 0.5C shows they achieve around 1000 cycles at 100% DOD (depth of discharge), 3000 cycles at 90% DOD, 5000 cycles at 80% DOD and 7000 cycles at 70% DOD.  For a Volt 6 electric scooter discharged to 80% on each ride and riding at an average speed of 50 km/h (according to the battery manufacturer) the vehicle should do around 500,000 km. (This is lab testing so real world results will vary). This basically means that for most people doing around 10,000 km a year, they should be good for 20 years. New technology in batteries will be coming along quickly so current batteries can be swapped out with newer tech and then the old batteries can be used for energy storage in other applications such as home solar systems. We will store any unwanted Lithium batteries in our facility until there is a viable recycling facility in South Africa.
• Electronics – The electronic components such as the controllers, BMS, Hub motors etc are all recyclable now
• Tyres – These are recyclable now
• Body panels – These plastics are recyclable now
• Frames – These mild steel frames are recyclable now
• Packing crates – The bikes are delivered in a crate that has cardboard and a steel frame. All of this is recyclable.

Living it

• Marketing materials – We try to use no single use marketing materials. Recently we had to succumb to producing business cards. However they do have pictures of the bikes, so are dual use, can be passed along and are recyclable. But that’s it!  The rest of our info is distributed electronically via email, pdf and on the web site. We will also endeavour to ensure reusable items such as pop-up banners are completely recyclable. We use electronic communications email, pdf at all times to minimise printing. Where we are legally obligated we will print on FSC certified paper.
• Travel – We use the electric scooters nearly all the time for local journey’s and commuting. Where we need an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) we are using bio diesel (Craig Waterman at Green Diesel) for some of the vehicles.

The average range specified with each bike is what most riders will achieve with medium paced smooth riding. For example, the Volt 6 NX  has a real world range of 110 km with a mix of driving speeds at around 50-80 km/h. If driven faster at around 100 km/h it will be more like 75 km and if driven steadily at around 40 km/h it will me more like 160 km.

In town there’s a lot of stoping and starting and the REGEN (regenerative braking) helps here. REGEN puts braking energy back in the batteries and saves on brake pad wear. Hard acceleration uses a lot of power, but the main thing that affects the range is high speed.  This is because the effort required to push the air in front of the electric scooter out of the way gets much greater with speed.

Simply put, the faster the rider goes the more battery energy is used in moving air out of the way and the less range that will be achieved.

For the technical… aerodynamic drag is related to the square of the velocity difference between the air and the bike. Here’s a big difference between electric vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles. Electrics are basically newer more efficient technology. They don’t waste energy creating lots of heat and noise, or have to overcome engine, gear and chain friction. Particularly at lower speeds, such as in traffic, they convert most of the energy used directly into motion.

Electric vehicles are around 10 times more efficient at converting energy into motion than internal combustion vehicles.

EWIZZ electric electric scooters are much cheaper to run because there is a lot less servicing needed. They don’t have belts, chains, pistons or gears to wear out and no filters, spark plugs or oils to change and no valves or clutches to adjust.

Running an EWIZZ electric scooter means great performance, almost free fuel, low running cost, longer service intervals and more time on the road.

Our electric scooters require a simple fixed price service each year or 10,000 km. Apart from that they need a rear tyre at 10,000km a front tyre at 20,000 km and brake pads at 30,000 km, depending on how they have been driven. As part of the servicing our technicians check all the important components of the bike such as batteries, motors, controllers, chargers, brakes, suspension, steering, lights etc. Our team will manage all your servicing and parts needs.

We offer maintenance contracts with either on-site maintenance or a collect and return service, alternatively you can bring the vehicles to us.

Charging times from flat are between 4 to 8 hours depending on the charger and battery combination.

The charging time is actually dependant on how much is left in the battery, or as we call it the “state of charge”, and the capability of the charger used. There are two types of charger : On-board, these are built into the electric motorcycle or electric scooter and chosen at time of specification and purchase) and External.

The on-board chargers are rated with an empty to full charge time. For example, for the Volt 6 F electric motorbike this is 4 hours.

Our electrics can charge from any normal 3 pin 15 Amp plug point. It’s that easy, just plug in and let it fill. Being able to use household plug points means you need no special infrastructure. However, you do need to think about how many scooters you charge and what else is on that circuit.  Most ring mains trip at around 30 Amps. For the Volt 6 F electric motorbike the charger takes a maximum of 10 Amps with a 240 volt supply.

Charging is not restricted to your base of operations as the driver can recharge wherever they find a a power outlet. There are an increasing number of EWIZZ charge points and points are springing up at cafe’s, restaurants, hotels and shopping malls.

Most of the time your electric won’t be empty, so the charging time is just dependant on the amount of energy left in the batteries, just like with how much fuel might be left in the gas tank. As an example, if there is 50% left in the batteries the charging time will be roughly 50% of the chargers rating, so 2.5 hours to fill for a 5 hour charger. You can see from the charging curves in the diagram how charge capacity builds with time.