eROCKIT - the World's Most Expensive Electric Motorized Bike?
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden 
on 10. 2.08
When inventor Stefan Gulas rides his eROCKIT around Berlin, he still turns lots of heads. Is it a motorcycle, a weird scooter, a souped-up bike? People don't seem to know. For eROCKIT is not only fast, going at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour, it's also pretty - a skinny, streamlined electric motorcycle or a thoroughly decked-out e-bike. Electric assist bikes are popular on TreeHugger, and most of them run between $1,000 to $5,000 - electric motorcycles are around $15,000. ERockiT plans to build just 10 machines in 2009, for the pretty-penny price tag of $44,000 ($35,000 down)! So O.K. maybe not for the masses, but still cool.
eROCKIT's electric assist is made to zip through city traffic
eROCKIT's inventors call it the human-hybrid machine. That sounds like hyperbole until you watch the eROCKIT in motion. The cyclist's pedaling motions assist the motor, which multiplies the rider's effort by a factor of 50, the company says. The faster you pedal, the faster you go.
Continuous 'muscle deployment' to power the motor
eROCKIT said this is the first time that the driver's physical power is just as relevant for driving dynamics and speed as the vehicle's technical properties and engine power. You pedal to get going and pedal to accelerate - hand brakes slow you down. Pedaling also helps to charge up the bike's battery. The bike has no separate acceleration pedal or handle as a motorcycle would.
Nano-phosphate lithium battery
eROCKIT says it is using a nano-phosphate lithium battery in its present design, which it expects to last for 10 years or 50,000 kilometers of use. Depending on driving or pedaling style, a charge should last for 60 to 80 kilometers, and cost the German consumer about 60 Euro cents, or just under U.S.$1. The eROCKIT weighs about 100 kilos (225 pounds) so you won't be able to carry it up the apartment steps, that's for sure.Via ::eROCKIT (German and English)
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I don't understand why people come up with such expensive vehicles and gets more attention than the ones mention in this blog. The price puts up a barrier for the general people and thus this vehicle becomes a thingummy for the happy few which are maybe not interested in saving fuel, because they can afford it anyway.
------author replies-----
Hi, Eddy:
I don't really think the sexy stuff like eROCKIT gets more attention, but when something is aesthetically pleasing and it breaks some ground technically, it does get attention.
It looks nothing more than a refined E-Solex (btw designed by Pininfarina) with nano-phosphate lithium batteries to me though.
Very cool looking. The price tag is high because it is hand made. If a big company picks this up it'll likely be more in the range of 1/2 to 1/3 the price.
I like it because it is not quite an electric motorbike, like the Enertia is, and more than just a bike with an electric motor one it. My only question is if the battery runs low, can you still peddle to get where you want to go. My guess is probably not because the site mentions that peddling generates electricity/charges the battery. So the peddles are likely connected to an alternator and not to the back wheel.
Another bicycle made by people who know nothing about bicycles for people who know nothing about bicycles.
Treehugger, you really need a bicycle editor.