Thats the problem isn't it? It's hard to know who or who to believe now?
Personally I would say that science is streets ahead of other methods of knowing what is true and what is not. How does the track record of science compare to, say, politicians, what is said by large companies, people ranting on YouTube, and the 'man down the pub'? Hence, I don't think I find it hard to know who or what to beleive.
What I will say, is cars have, and always will be the easy target. While there is CPE (Combustion performance efficiency) work continually being done on commercial ICE engines. Rarely is anything said of the effect of commercial shipping for example, let alone aviation.
But, if you look up the actual facts, plenty is said about commercial shipping. Both commercial shipping and aviation produce about 11% (roughly) of the emissions due to transport. Which are about 25% of global CO2 emissions. So, very roughly about 2.5% each. Shipping doesn't occur to many people, and that's an example of why it's better to look up reliable sources. Because they won't make such omissions.
However, for aviation, certainly everyone's talking about emissions from aviation all the time. So, I disagree with you on that one. Newspaper comments section (about the quality of discussions with random people down the pub, I believe) are always going on about aviation.
Capitalists don't care one iota about that. All they care about is swelling their personal wealth so they can enjoy the finest things in life.
As others have said, battery technology is improving daily. BUT, the public perception of them is not improving at the same rate. That is one of the biggest hurdles. If you listen to the masses, especially here in America. The perception is that EV's are being forced upon them. They will never be successful unless that perception changes on a large scale
There is a difference between perception and truth. Here I'm talking about truth. Personally I think it's, on average, mostly older people who feel that EVs are being forced on them. And, the younger generations that will replace them are far more open. As happens in many situations.
As with everything. Just follow the money, that is the reasoning behind most decisi
Or follow the science. It works much better.
The issue with EB's, is they require considerable R&D financial investment, which we know KTM does not have. So I think they have to, at least for the time being, continue as ICE or not at all.
Yep, it's been the general understanding that they seemed to base their business model on the short term post COVID boom. Even without the cost of living increases, it seems that sportsbikes were on the way out anyway, which was once a huge market segment.
Agreed, but individually there is little we could do about it. I used to work at the largest Ford engine manufacturing facility in the world. Their electric bill was a million pounds a WEEK.
Well, one person is never going to make a significant difference on a global scale. But, that's where 'doing our bit' comes in. E.g. if I recycle or not it makes not one jot of a difference globally. But, if I'm doing my bit and everyone else is, then that makes a bigger difference.
I remember walking around once thinking "If I lived basically off the grid, in a cave, and used absolutely as little resources as I could for the rest of my life, it absolutely would not make a dent compared to the effect of this one facility"
"But if we all did it". Yes, but often in life I have found myself standing in the trenches to make a stand, with no one else around me. People in general are too consumed with their own issues and daily lives & struggles to care.
I think there are quite a few people who are taking steps to reduce their environmental impact. Lots of them. Often they get called 'woke' or are accused of 'virtual signalling' for doing so. So, I don't think it's just no-one else doing it.
Getting back on topic, I'm not sure that electric motorcycles require that much R&D. It's the batteries that are the key element, and the technology is not that different from batteries for other purposes. See how quickly Ducati, a small company, could come up with their MotoE bike. And, there are lots of tiny start-ups who have created electric motorcycles. I don't see R&D as being a huge roadblock here. And, KTM is working closely and sharing technology with CFMoto. Who clearly have some money to spend on R&D. I think it's quite possible that KTM will be able to release electric bikes.
