200 Watt Bicycle Engine

It is often thought that electric powered bikes and cars are environmentally friendly.  In some cases, electric vehicles can be less harmful to the environment than the equivalent petrol powered vehicle, however, this is far from teh case when comparing electic bicycles fitted with our 200 Watt petrol engine.

The first misnomer is that electricity is environmentally friendly.  Electric bikes seem to be clean, and indeed they do not put hydrocarbons directly into the atmosphere.  Stand back a little and you soon realise that the “clean” energy is far from what it appears.  Bear in mind that much of the electricity in Australia is derived from coal fired power plants. Although you do not see the pollution, the issue is merely shifted out of site.

Add to this the massive inefficiencies faced by electricity: Coal is first used to heat the water needed to power turbines; the turbines then have further mechanical losses before producing the electricity; The power is then transported over “the grid” and finally, a portion of the coals’s energy is provided at the plug socket.

This is not the end of the issue though.  You then charge you battery by plugging in a transformer (more losses) which charges your battery.  The battery itself produces the biggest loss – The power that you get out of the battery is far less than the power that’s put in….

And then, there is the mechanical and electrical losses of the bicycle motor itself.

Petrol engines, by contrast, are highly efficient as they burn energy closer to the power output.  There is only the mechanical loss of the engine and bike and the chemical loss of the combustion.