NO federal incentive for electric motorcycles - WOW

Biden extended the incentives ( $7,500 tax credit ) for electrified cars but discontinued ones for Electric Motorcycles.

at first i was shocked to learn this because motorcycles are potentially more efficient than cars and he should be trying to get people to switch from cars to motorcycles.

but then i realized nobody actually replaces cars with motorcycles - people get a motorcycle IN ADDITION to a car, in which case they would get incentive TWICE but still only ride / drive one of them.

the ONLY reason i drive a Plug-in Hybrid was that $7,500 incentive, which essentially covers the extra cost of additional tech in the car, so you get it for free …

on other hand if you get a $25,000 electric motorcycle the government won’t pay ANY of that … not US Federal government anyway …

as such electric motorcycles are currently a non-starter in US …

PHEV Volvo was actually a better value than regular Volvo after the $7,500 incentive because you got AWD and extra 85 hp with the PHEV version all for free after that incentive …

with motorcycles it’s the exact opposite - you pay $25,000 and get the equivalent of a $15,000 gas bike … basically throwing $10,000 away …

needless to say i won’t be getting an electric motorcycle until the feds get their shit together, which realistically will probably never happen …

it makes no sense to subsidize toys …

they subsidize green cars because they know you will buy a car no matter what, and if they don’t subsidize a green one you will simply buy one that isn’t green …

on other hand it is not a given that you will buy a motorcycle thus subsidizing one may actually incentivize you to buy a toy you wouldn’t have bought otherwise … which is dumb

it’s kind of sad …

almost all gas motorcycles get about 40 mpg because they pretty much all use the same tech and have about the same aerodynamics ( most drag is from the rider )

only very small motorcycles actually beat Prius on economy and you wouldn’t want to ride any of them

meanwhile electric motorcycles are so niche you end up spending about 50% more on them than on gas motorcycles

the only viable transport option right now is plug in hybrids cars and if you don’t need to road trip then electric cars

motorcycles aren’t viable in any form ( hence why nobody uses them )

regular gas cars make sense if your driving is mostly highway miles

and hybrids make sense if you drive in the city and have nowhere to charge

in fact the less powerful motorcycles that average higher MPG at fuelly are probably not seeing as many highway miles, which is what kills motorcycle efficiency

it also kills hybrid efficiency as well

in fact hybrid cars and regular motorcycles seem to have a very similar economy profile both in city and highway - though for somewhat different reasons

they are both inefficient on highway

and moderately efficient in the city

electric motorcycles are VERY efficient in the city so actually if you live in the city something like BMW CE 04 electric scooter may make sense …

but who wants to live in the city … or ride a scooter.