Electric Transportation Is Now More Efficient - KTUL.com - Tulsa, Oklahoma - News, Weather & Sports

Not too many years ago, if you wanted an electric vehicle, you were limited to something like a golf cart that's slow and carries hundreds of pounds of batteries.

Now new technology is providing some promising alternatives, such as electric motorcycles that are fast, stylish and efficient.

At the Brookside Motorcycle Company on Peoria, they've just started to carry Zero Motorcycles.

By using brush-less electric motors and modern batteries they can go 100 miles on one charge.

The motorcycles can also travel at almost 90 miles an hour.

Brookside's Paul Rogers says when you figure the price of an electricity and the cost of gasoline, the bikes get the equivalent of about 500 miles per gallon.

His wife Michelle likes to ride them because of their light weight and simple.

There's no clutch and no shifting of gears.

So you just twist the throttle and the bike gets moving.

It also has a self-braking mechanism, so it slows down quickly when you ease off the throttle.

In addition the bikes are almost silent and there's no exhaust or gasoline smells, so the environment isn't hurt by their use.

Battery life is also much better than in the past.

With the original battery lasting up to 300,000 miles and maintaining 80% of the original efficiency.