Move Electric’s best features of 2022: lap records, tuk-tuks… and… – Move Electric

The world associated with electric mobility is growing at an incredible pace, so the team here at Move Electric powered Towers have been flat-out all year highlighting the people, companies and technology leading the transport revolution.

Given we can barely keep up with what we’ve done, we figured you might have missed some bits too. So we thought we’d take a look back at some of the best features we’ve carried out this year.

Electric record setting at Brands Hatch

The idea was simple: get Move Electric’s name in the particular record books by setting a load of electric panel records in Brands Hatch , one of Britain’s most famous racing circuits. We somehow managed to borrow the Kent circuit for an hour, so the big question was how many electric vehicles we could find to set a time.

In the end, we arrived at Manufacturers on a chilly January day with seven – seven! – battery-powered vehicles and seven brave pilots, and in the frantic, chaotic day, every single 1 of them made it around the 1. 2-mile circuit safely. Yes, even Autocar’s Matt Prior, who volunteered to ride the particular Perry e-scooter, which didn’t take kindly to the circuit’s steep hills.

We made a video about it, too. Therefore watch this to get the full story of how we set new Brand names Hatch clapboard records with a (deep breath… ) Tesla Model 3, Lunaz Rolls-Royce Phantom conversion, Citroën e-Despatch, Gocycle G4, Silence S01, Perrys eHopper and an electric skateboard.

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Racing across London… and Harrogate

What’s the fastest electric vehicle is you want to get across a city? That was the particular question we set out to answer with another epic video, with the first Shift Electric E-Race across London .

We gathered six electrical vehicles, ranging from the Porsche Taycan to a rental e-scooter, and challenged them to cover 18 miles through the heart of the UK’s capital. It turned into the surprisingly close battle between a Super Soco TX Max e-motorbike plus a pair of e-bikes.

Check out the particular full movie below.

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Meanwhile, when our e-bike correspondent Rebecca Bland had to return a Specialized Turbo Como from her house in Harrogate to a store 25 miles away in Bradford, she decided to cycle there and take the train home, to see which was quicker and easier.

Rebecca chronicled the journey to look at whether an e-bike really can beat the train . Although the biggest shock from the whole trip turned out to be the price of sausage rolls from train stations…

The companies pushing e-scooter technology

Electric powered scooters still aren’t fully legal in the UK – and with recent government delays, we’re not sure exactly when they will be. Still, that hasn’t stopped some pioneering firms really pushing forward the technologies and design of the machines.

The biggest name inside e-scooters at the moment is Pure Electric , which this year transformed itself in order to focus on developing cutting-edge machines. That resulted in the particular launch associated with the Pure Advance plus Pure Advance Flex , which attempt to ‘reinvent’ the riding experience through an innovative new platform.

The founders of Bristol-based Bo previously did some design work for Real Electric, but has now set up upon their own – and brought their automotive industry experience to bear on two-wheeled machines. The result is the new Bo M , which usually we tested in prototype form while finding away more about the particular firm.

McLaren Applied is also arranged on applying cutting-edge road car tech to new industries, plus it actually launched a mobility spin-off called Lavoie that has revealed its own radical e-scooter. Proceed Electric had an exclusive first look — and it appears very promising.

And if you’re looking for some lightweight electric technology that’s completely different, we paid a visit to The Tuk Shop , which is importing electric tuk-tuks to the UNITED KINGDOM.

Meeting the people leading the e-bike revolution

Electric bikes are rapidly becoming the particular mainstream, and the pace of innovation is incredible. So it’s been a pleasure for the Move Electrical team to meet some of the companies who are helping in order to push the particular market forwards.

Created by brothers James and Lyle Metcalfe, London-based Volt Bikes is a dedicated e-bike firm that’s earned plenty of attention and praise for quality bikes and strong customer service. The particular brothers compensated a check out to Move Electric powered Towers to help spread the e-bike word to some of our car-focused colleagues on Autocar and What Car?, and to tell the story associated with their firm’s meteoric rise .

Preston company Ribble is at the opposite end of the spectrum: it’s been around since 1897 and produces all manner of bikes. It’s right now investing heavily in e-bike development, plus that’s paying off: we picked the Ribble Hybrid AL e Fully Loaded as our greatest electric bike in the Shift Electric Awards 2022.

Rebecca Bland paid a visit in order to their flagship store within Clitheroe to find out how the 135-year-old firm is reinventing itself with regard to the electric age .

Another British firm pushing ahead e-bike technology is Wigan-based MiRider , which specialises in folding machines. The family run company is currently focused on doing one bicycle well, yet as Rebecca found out is looking to grow fast .

An additional e-bike company that is a specialist in a particular product is Eskuta , which has found a real gap in the market for moped-style machines that are particularly popular with delivery riders . That said, it wasn’t entirely planned: company boss Ian O’Connor told us that a chance conversation with an university freshers’ fair led to a reinvention of the company’s target audience.

We haven’t only highlighted British firms. Perhaps the most remarkable e-bike story all of us covered this particular year was Delfast , an Ukrainian-based e-bike firm that offers found the way in order to keep going – and thriving – despite Russia’s invasion.

Company founder Daniel Tonkopi is now based in the US, but many associated with the team are distribute across Ukraine. He told us how they defied the horrors of war to create a stylish brand new machine .

The Lexus that’s no yoke

Thanks to Tesla, steering yokes upon cars can be a little… controversial. So there was a few scepticism whenever Lexus announced that the forthcoming RZ 450e, its first true bespoke EV, would be offered having a yoke.

But this one is a bit different: it’s part of the steer-by-wire system designed in order to offer far greater control to drivers. So what’s it like? We were given an early taste with a drive associated with a model Lexus RZ 450e .

As an added bonus, we had been given exclusive UK access to the pre-production model in a studio regarding an in-depth video on the model.

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The RZ 450e will arrive next year as part of a huge expansion of parent company Toyota’s EV ambitions . We also recently had an in-depth look at the company’s plans for the battery electric powered future – which could include a manual gearbox intended for electric performance cars .

The rapidly changing world associated with electric cars

One of the particular key parts of an electrical car is the battery pack: after all, without one of those, a good EV isn’t getting really far. Therefore it was a real source of pride to get Skoda this season that the firm moved battery pack production in-house on its main plant in Mlada Boleslav within the Czech Republic.

It means Skoda now makes its battery packs next to the assembly lines that will produce the particular Skoda Enyaq iV and Enyaq Coupe iV, plus Move Electric was invited along pertaining to a close-up look at how its done .

If there’s one concern about electric powered cars it’s that they’re often big and heavy, and use up lots of batteries. So it was interesting to catch up with Vincent Cobee, the boss of Citroën – a firm that with the Ami and new Oli concept is really pressing smaller EVs. He informed us why he’s hopeful Citroën won’t launch an additional big, heavy electric SUV in the future.

Speaking of electric cars: have you ever wondered if an EV is because efficient since a kettle? Ponder no more: we have answers .

The particular state associated with electric car charging in the UK

There’s plenty of innovative electric car technology in development at the moment, along with an actual focus on making charging quicker and simpler. Plus we took a look at several solutions this year.

They range from Nio’s battery swap station , which simply changes the particular battery in an EV for a new a single, to Zipcharge’s new concept for the portable ELECTRONIC VEHICLES charger .

Yet what about the state from the EV getting network in the united kingdom right today? Haymarket editorial director Jim Holder (aka Move Electric’s equivalent associated with Emperor Palpatine) put it in order to the test with a 981-mile, 10 day family holiday in a Ford Mustang Mach-E.

On the similar note, correspondent Jesse Crosse has now spent more than a year living with a Kia e-Niro , and he shared a few of the fascinating things he’s learned along with us.

One thing Jesse didn’t experience was many mechanical issues. So are electric powered cars reliable ? All of us delved into the details to discover – and we also talked to several of the independent dealers trying to cut the cost of EV servicing .

The future of electric motorbikes

Electric motorbike technologies is furthermore developing in a rapid pace, plus we’ve met some of the companies helping drive that change.

Earlier this year Sam Phillips chatted to John Edwards, the particular boss associated with Silence UK , to find out about the challenge of producing a true battery-powered replacement for a petrol motorbike .

The Silence SO1 will be so well regarded that when car firm Seat wanted its own e-moped it did a deal to use this as a base. The Seat Mo arrived in the UK this season, and as well while finding out there from the particular firm about it’s two-wheeled plans we all also found out how easy it was to do the CBT bike test on one.

Not almost all e-motorbikes look the same though: one company taking a very different approach is Stirling Eco , which is usually centered on developing zero-emission models that are styled after American Choppers .