Gasoline motorcycle vs electric motorcycle: what's better and how to choose

Gasoline motorcycle vs electric motorcycle

The argument is one of those capable of unleashing great controversy: is a petrol or an electric motorcycle better? What are the advantages of an internal combustion engine compared to an electric motor, and vice versa? In the past we have already told you about electric motorcycles and what are the advantages they offer but in this article we will try to give a definitive answer to the question posed in the title, analyzing what are the main areas of use of a motorcycle.

In some ways, electric motorcycles immediately approached the performance of endothermic motorcycles: if we take the most powerful electric motorcycles on the market as an example and compare them to their endothermic counterparts, we can see how the performance gap is relatively reduced, but the aspects that make electric motorcycles still not very functional in the eyes of many motorcyclists are others, such as the overall weight, the purchase price, the autonomy and the charging times. However, there are areas of use in which the use of an electric motor can lead to substantial savings, without going to change too much the lifestyle that one had previously with a petrol motorcycle; let's analyze the main strengths of the two types of engines to understand which is the most suitable based on the situation.

Petrol motorbike, why choose it?

A petrol motorbike can boast several advantages compared to an electric motorbike: first of all the question of autonomy, intrinsically linked to that of recharging times, it boils down to needing to find a gas station before you run dry. Nowadays it is much easier, especially in sparsely populated areas, to find a petrol station rather than a petrol station, and even if one does find a petrol station, the time to put 15/20 liters of petrol into a tank is drastically shorter than recharging an electric motorcycle, even the most modern and technologically advanced. From this point of view, the petrol motorbike wins hands down, as it requires much less programming and leaves us more free to explore without worrying too much about where we are actually going: if you are a lover of adventure motorbike trips, the advice is that to stay on a petrol vehicle for some time yet.

--> Furthermore, a petrol motorbike can boast over a century of technological development in every single detail, so it is not surprising that petrol motorbikes are more refined even on the smallest details (although it always depends a lot on the price range of the motorbike in question), just think of the beautiful BMW R nineT Option 719 that we had the pleasure of testing just a few months ago, just before winter arrived, a gem of functionality combined with elegance.

If for you, the motorcycle means going out early on a warm Sunday morning with the intention of shooting several hundred km at high speeds, the petrol motorcycle is still your best friend and it will still be several years before an electric motorcycle is able to meet your needs. Finally, the lower average purchase price compared to an electric counterpart makes the petrol motorcycle still a very valid purchase.



--> BMW R nineT Option 719

Electric motorbike, why choose it?

On the other hand, an electric motorbike, which suffers from comparison when it comes to autonomy and refueling times, offers various advantages not only during use but also in terms of maintenance costs. We are not necessarily talking about high-performance electric motorcycles such as the very fast Energica Eva EsseEsse9 RS , the first electric motorcycle we tested, but also models with more contained powers such as the Zero FXE or the Super Soco TCMax , the latter comparable to a 125cc motorbike.

These motorbikes are not designed for long journeys, both are equipped with a fairly slow recharging system and therefore the daily autonomy will hardly be particularly high; on the other hand, these bikes make ease of use and agility two of their greatest strengths – they are two-wheeled vehicles that could entice new users to take up the road of motorcycling, also thanks to the ease of power management that is felt on an electric motorcycle. Unlike a petrol motorcycle, where most of the power that can be developed is developed in a certain engine speed, an electric motorcycle will be able to accelerate very quickly, except when you are already close enough to the speed maximum allowed.



--> Super Soco TCMax Furthermore, an electric motorcycle can boast several technological aspects in its favor, such as the absence of noise, heat, or exhaust gas smells: yes, whether you like it or not, these are aspects in favor than an electric motorcycle, especially if the latter is used in cities where any disturbing noise is heard by hundreds of people nearby. If you live in a crowded apartment building, your neighbors will thank you for choosing an electric motorcycle instead of the old Monster one that is left idling for a minute in the basement garages. The same goes for the smell of exhaust fumes that lingers on clothes on occasion, especially when driving in slow-speed traffic: an electric motor does not emit exhaust fumes, so work clothes remain clean and smelling good .

We continue with the chapter dedicated to the heat emitted by the engine, an aspect that becomes crucial in the hottest season, especially if you are driving in the heavy traffic of big cities: the result in this case is totally in favor of the electric motorbike, that does not get hot and will not give you the sensation of sitting on a lit stove.

Finally, the maintenance chapter: we recently published an article dedicated to the maintenance costs of an electric motorcycle, which Zero Motorcycles estimates at about 10% compared to the maintenance costs of an endothermic motorcycle of the same power. As we well know, on electric vehicles there are much fewer moving parts and those subject to wear than on an endothermic engine, and this means that the motorbike can travel a greater number of kilometers without the need for particular maintenance: in the during the life of the bike you will have to worry about the brakes (pads and oil), tires and possibly the transmission system (belt or chain) after several tens of thousands of kilometers travelled.



Energetic Eva EsseEsse9 RS

It all depends on the lifestyle

Impossible to give a definitive answer to the question "better electric or petrol?" because it all depends on the lifestyle and the use you want to make of your motorbike: if you are looking for a vehicle for Sunday adventures it is still too early for the electric one – unless you are particularly intrigued by mobility technology at zero local emissions, because in this case I can assure you that traveling with an electric motorbike is possible, you just need to know how to organize yourself – and my advice is to stay on an internal combustion engine at least until solid-state batteries arrive, which should improve both the weight and the autonomy of electric motorcycles.

If, on the other hand, the use of the motorcycle is strictly reserved for daily home-work trips and for errands around one's own home, an electric motorcycle could be the solution perfect: the simplicity of use of these vehicles makes them easy to approach even by those who are not used to riding a motorbike, maintenance and recharging costs are They are drastically lower than those of an endothermic motorcycle and you will be able to shoot like a stone thrown from a slingshot at each traffic light that has turned green. The city is the perfect environment for an electric two-wheeler, whatever its size, and electric motorcycles are not excluded.