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Comment by schuke | Hacker News Reader

They make great engines but do they make great battery and motors too? What other parts are sophisticated on a scooter? How would they compete with Chinese rivals? I live in China but have never seen anything from any manufacturer other than local ones. I've always wondered why there isn't a Honda scooter. It seems these scooters tend to weigh and ride more like bicycles (light & slow) rather than motorcycles (heavy and fast). Do they require very different design / manufacture skillsets? Some analysis on this would make interesting reading.

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https://www.atherenergy.com/

This is the Indian player. Trually the first real forward thinking “scooter” I’ve seen that’s electric. Completely rebuilt from the “ground up” I’d say. Niu is slapped together hedge fund money.

Ather is cool-looking but also seems to be shipping in one city, if that; I'd like to see a bit more scale first. With scooters, I also think removable batteries are the way to go: that makes them harder to steal, in at least one dimension, and easier to recharge for apartment-dwellers.

Apartments need to build charging areas. Bringing a lithium ion battery into your home is a bad idea. Any apartment complex with any liability will ban them.

Tesla’s and Ferrari’s get stolen. Everything can be stolen. That’s what insurance is for.

Most “scooters” in china are more like peddled scooters. Most people go to and from a short distance. Under 48v maybe 15Ah. That’s giving you about 30km or under real range. Most bikes use lead acid and are heavy as anything to carry around. Most goto the shops which is downstairs and maybe 10-20km max a day if at all on their bikes. The ones that need further might buy a lithium battery. But then there’s the cost, cheap scooter 1399rmb expensive lithium scooter 3000-6000. The niu is a Bosch motor. So nothing unique or engineered about it. It’s some oem with plastic and an app developer. They’re light. They’re basic. They’re cheap. Now go sit on a Yamaha 110 scooter. Or 125 scooter. Those are built well. They run nice and they’re great fun. All Yamaha needs to do is take an electric motor (easy) and place that with a locally sourced (Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony) battery and boom. Niu useless and the app became even more so. If anything. Indian made bikes are the only thing that could compete with Yamaha and Honda. There’s some real innovation coming out of there. I can’t remember the name of one bike. But it had an in built lcd panel that was actually useful with inbuilt maps, a super charging network, custom designed motor and a aluminium milled body. Really neat stuff. India is coming!

who needs a builtin lcd panel when you can just plug in your phone?

Who needs a built in lcd at all? No one. Butter Indian designers built maps in. That’s useful and the only reason anyone needs that. Also who needs two hands on the handle bars when you can plug in your phone and ride with one on the throttle and the other on maps. There is 0 use for plugging a phone into a scooter. Nor is it even safe to build that as a feature. You’re phone is not your priority whilst riding.

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