E-trike from China for after SHTF?

[papaof2]

www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805573018880.html

Fully equipped: $2,838.35 plus $368.08 shipping plus tax (but see bottom for more on shipping).

90%+ of the ad is in Chinese but "Package Seven" is the fully equipped trike with doors, windshield wiper (just one - it's a small vehicle), a fan for cooling, a sunroof, the largest battery bank and motor. Windows on doors are slide-to-open. I'd expect the fan and the sunroof to be absolute necessities on a sunny day because of the large expanse of glass (Plexiglas?).

Seating is driver in front center and small bench seat behind - think maximum of two kids in late elementary school. Driver's seat is adjustable at least front-to-back. Might be useful for carrying small amounts of weather-protected cargo if you replaced the rear seat with lightweight (plastic, aluminum) shelving or bin(s).

Handlebar steering with controls for lights, forward/reverse and three speeds at your fingertips, as are turn signals, horn and controls for front and top-mounted lights. Having a low speed for reverse might be a good thing when the pictures do NOT show an inside rearview mirror and you can't see close behind the vehicle when looking out the rear window but there are outside mirrors on both sides.

The "dash" includes a speedometer (KPH, not MPH and no mention of it being switchable), battery voltmeter and a dashed line "Remaining Battery Capacity" indicator, plus something else that you can only see the corner of :-(

Fully loaded speed is 20kph or 12MPH. Might fit in Peachtree City, GA where the city design was for golf carts to handle the local traffic (schools, grocery, parks, etc.). Range is 25km or 15.5 miles.

Body is 5' 5" tall, 6' 11" long, 44.5" wide.

The base chassis ("naked vehicle") is $899.49 plus $368.08 shipping which probably means that's the base shipping price for the "naked vehicle" and shipping for the completed vehicle is several times that price because of size and weight.

[gipsy]

But will it climb stairs?

[papaof2]

Not in it's current configuration - it doesn't have enough ground clearance. Not from their (limited) documentation but from visual observation. You need ramps at no more than 5 degrees - maybe 10 degrees if you have the biggest motor and battery bank.

[papaof2]

Check Amazon for etrikes - they have a lot of them for sale.

[techsar]

4 months later and now is $22,659.42...plus shipping

[papaof2]

This e-trike looks to be one of the best available: lectricebikes.com/products/xp-trike-graphite

The price is $1499 and currently includes the front and rear cargo baskets. Free shipping! The comfort seat (has a back) is $39.

It's rear wheel drive, so you have traction going uphill.

I've seen two videos about this e-trike: one comparing 4 similar e-trikes from $1499 (the Lectric XP) to $2999 and one I ran across yesterday by someone who's about my age and finally gave up his e-bike because the didn't want another trip to the hospital or the doctor's office. He's a long-time Harley rider who gave those up for an e-bike but has now gone to the e-trike. The Lectric XP even has a parking brake (latch that can lock the handlebar brake when fully engaged) so the e-trike won't roll away. I think I'd want a chain and a sturdy padlock as well ;-)

Digital display has speed (MPH), battery charge level, mileage traveled, trip mileage, time since key turned on (trip time if you just hop on and go). Max speed is about 14MPH. The motor is 500 watts with "1092W peak" - but you can add in your pedal power. The rear axle has a differential so the wheels can be a different speeds when making turns and not be scraping rubber off the tires because the wheels are at the same RPM when turning. Both front and rear brakes are hydraulic so you never have to adjust the brake cables. The e-trike weighs 69.5 lbs. Max payload is 415 lbs. Max Rider weight 330 lbs, Max Front Basket Weight 35 lbs, Max Rear Basket Weight 75 lbs. Lots more specs at the link above.

The 48 volt, 14AH battery has a 4 - 6 hour charge time and a maximum range of 60 miles on one charge. If you're in a hilly area, I think you'd want to start your range at 15 miles and see what it actually works out to be. From the range calculator at:

reallygoodebikes.com/pages/electric-bike-ebike-range-calculator

the power required to go up a 5% grade at 10MPH is 2.5times as much as the same speed on level pavement and the power to make a 5% grade at 15MPH is 4.2 times as much as the same speed on level pavement. At 10MPH, that would take your 60 mile range down to 60 / 2.5 = 24 miles and at 15MPH the range would be 60 / 4.2 = 14.28 miles. Other considerations would be your likely local weather (the old guy with the e-trike lives in Arizona so probably in the ballpark of 200+ sunny days a year). I would NOT be out in any frozen precipitation and I would avoid wet roads as much as possible. Yesterday's "Gusting to 40MPH" might also be a "Do NOT ride" condition. If you're going against the wind, could you make ANY progress?

For the riding I'm likely to do on an e-trike, there would be some 5% grade in a couple of relatively short segments (less than 2 miles). In thinking about grade percentage, most mainline US railroad tracks are under 3% - standard steel wheel loco pulling multiple freight cars (no cog railway or the like). Where the tracks have been taken up and walking/biking paths/trails created, they are easy walking or biking but you would have to do some calculations if you planned to ride a distance on one of those trails because even a 2% grade would cause some measurable increase in power usage.

The old guy did say an e-trike takes some getting used to because on two wheels you are constantly making corrections for things like the side-to-side slope of the road but you don't have to do that on three wheels. There is room to mount one 50 watt solar panel over the rear basket and still stay within the footprint of the back wheels. That's not much power when level pavement at 10MPH requires almost 57 watts of power. If you're a 10 minute ride from the grocery, you can park in the sun and you'll be in the grocery at least 30 minutes you might break even on power. 57 watts * 10 minutes = 570 watt minutes. The panel would be mounted facing up, which only gives about 2/3 of the panel's output when at the optimum angle for my location. 50 * 2/3 = 50 * 0.67 = 33.5 watts. However, that panel produces about 17 volts under load so you need a boost converter to get the 56 volts or so needed to charge a nominal 48 volt battery. At best, that boost converter might be 95% efficient but if you buy the cheapest one on banggood.com that might be 90%. 33.5 watts * 0.9 = 30.15 watts. 30.15 watts * 30 minutes = 904.5 watt minutes so your trip TO the grocery is covered and you should be able to get back home IF you are doing this in the optimum sun hours of two hours before and after solar noon - that's NOT clock time, it's solar time. Check here: www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/
If your battery wasn't fully charged when you left home and you're in that 4 hour window, the battery should be more charged when you leave the grocery than when you left home to go to the grocery. If it's 5PM in October, better be sure the battery is at least half charged because you might be riding home in the dark and you'll need head and tail lights on and the battery will get zero charge while it's parked. Better work these trips out in advance or have someone with a pickup, a good set of ramps that fit the three wheels of the e-trike and a winch at the front of the bed to pull the dead e-trike up the ramps.

Yes. I'm a pessimist - but I've survived a long time by seeing things from that point of view ;-)