Battery Life Concerns of no Concern
LiFePO4
Prepare for some serious information regurgitation. 
With all the new BEVs hitting the market lately there has been a huge concern over battery life. I have seen a few comments regarding the TCO Calculator as inaccurate because it doesn’t take into account replacement costs for batteries. Is this really a valid concern? Im certainly no expert in the area but that’s not gonna stop me from throwing a few numbers together to prove my point.
Let’s take the Brammo Enertia for example, Brammo claims the batteries are good for 2000 cycles if cared for properly. The bike has a 42 mile average range so that comes out to 84,000 potential miles. Considering that’s under ideal conditions, most people wont put even half that on a motorcycle in its lifetime. And here’s a point most people miss, once the batteries hit their effective EOL (Here’s a good read on this) they should still hold an 80% charge. So for an Enertia that’s been to hell and back, probably twice, your still achieving about 33 miles range. Under similar circumstances I would say chances are your traditional ICE motorcycle will be in need of an engine rebuild.
At the rate battery technology is progressing consider also that replacement batteries will cost much less by the time they need to be replaced. Probably less than an engine rebuild that is.
i’m on the pre-buy list, but I have some lingering questions. Most motorcycles have only ~30k mi lifespan largely due to motor wear and tear. Now 30k mi is a lot for a motorcycle anyway. Compared with a fairly modest motorcycle such as the ninja by your tool the likelihood is the empulse would never be economical. Unfortunately we can’t predict gas prices, but still. As battery technology increases they will inevitably become cheaper, but it’s unclear how and when full batteries would need to be change. 10k$ is a serious investment, I’d like to see some of this stuff worked out personally. Thanks for the blog and the tool.
Hey Todd! I guess it depends on your needs and what kind of range you require. The Empulse 6.0 compares quite nicely with the Ninja 650R with a break even point of 21226 miles. That may be a lot of miles for some folks and the numbers wont work for everyone, but is <$2000 difference at 0 miles (with the federal tax break) gonna stop you from buying the Brammo over a Ninja 650R? Consider too that the electric motors in these bikes are maintenance free and should easily go 60k miles.
I’m going to get one anyway, but I put minimal miles on my present scooter (primary means of transit). I probably do just a few thousand miles per year, so it would take me a decade or so to break even. Hopefully Florida will cancel the sales tax (we have no income tax) and that’ll help. I think the big thing that would make this scenario workable for a wider selection of folks is accessible charging stations, which may even begin before production does with the chevy volt and nissan leaf coming out. That would mitigate the distance issue, though realistically driving distances is rare except for special occasions anyway.