Continuing the Dialogue on New Scoots EPA Happy

[Jacine]

Here is a new scooter company that makes CARBON NEUTRAL SCOOTERS. Ok carbon neutral ? Why do I get the feeling that the scooter is biodegradable?

Here is the tag line.

The latest from Branson, who have a range of electric scooters and motorcycles;

Finally a motorcycle company with an environmental conscience - Branson GB LTD have teamed up with The CarbonNeutral Company Ltd to offer consumers a fantastic range of lightweight, economical motorcycle and scooter products which don’t cost the earth. Branson GB is the first and, currently, the only CarbonNeutral® motorcycle company in the world!

The Branson range has been designed and developed in Denmark, and is then manufactured alongside products from leading European and Japanese brands in China. The Branson range aims to predominantly fulfil the needs of the youth, commuter and leisure markets with cool styling and quality cost effective products.

Included in the 2008 product line-up are ultra competitive scooters from 50cc to 250cc, and motorcycles ranging from 125cc to 250cc. Branson also have a practical yet rugged range of ATVs and leisure Buggy’s for the construction and rural markets which will be launched later this year. The majority of the range carries a generous 3-year, unlimited parts and labour warranty.

www.branson-gb.com

[lewtwo]

Carbon Neutral ... I must be getting senile.
>> The latest from Branson, who have a range of electric scooters and motorcycles; <<

I went to the web site and everything they have runs on Gasoline/Petrol. How can you have a carbon neutral anything that burns hydrocarbon fossil fuels ?? I think maybe the marketing department is biodegradable and needs recycling.

[powerride]

They forgot how to proof read..

[Jacine]

Their 250 motorcycle looks familiar. Maybe a vento.

[earlwb]

Carbon Neutral appears to be a "marketing" ploy by various companies.
What they do is figure out how to play the carbon credits game, buying and selling carbon credits, so that they can say it is "carbon neutral".
All of our industrial revolution manufacturing processes polute the enviroment and poison everything while spewing out lots of carbon in the process.

[natefromogden]

I'm pretty certain that what they intend is to pay into a carbon offset program that plants trees or some other activity that takes out of the atmosphere an equivilent amount of carbon as can be figured for the manufacture, distribution and operation of each machine they sell.

Which means that carbon credit is added to the cost of the machine.

All the research that I have read says that there is NO proof that carbon offset selling companies have any effect or even actually do anything that can be verified as an actual offset. Ex-VP OwlGore claims that his huge mansion and private jet's carbon consumption is offset through a company that sells carbon offsets, yet he created and is the majority shareholder for the company!

[scooterollie]

Yeah, why am I just a little bit suspicious of Uncle Al's motives?

[earlwb]

Don't forget AL "invented the internet" too.
sarcasm intended.

[earlwb]

Anyway, it looks like a new third party industry for "racing' ECU's will come out of it all.
You will simply get a "racing ECU" and plug it in and use it. When inspection time comes around, you swap it back out. Maybe if you spend extra, you get the deluxe model that tells the inspection computer all the right things, so you always pass.

[Jacine]

earlwb said:

Anyway, it looks like a new third party industry for "racing' ECU's will come out of it all.
You will simply get a "racing ECU" and plug it in and use it. When inspection time comes around, you swap it back out. Maybe if you spend extra, you get the deluxe model that tells the inspection computer all the right things, so you always pass.

As long as the bikes don't contain a black snitch box which is what most of them seem to require now.

[earlwb]

Well, someone will reverse engineer the snitcher and program up something to respond that it is AOK any time it is queried.

I have programmed microcontrollers from time to time and I am amazed at how some hackers manage to decode and extract the programming from a microcontroller that may even be a secure encrypted one no less. One group even managed to gain access to a million dollar testing machine to analyze the microcontroller bare chip itself.

So the snitcher section is no biggie, we'll just have to wait for a hacker to figure it all out. Which is probably two weeks after production starts if that long.

[YellowScooter]

They're already on it Im sure.
A box that basicly keeps it's mouth shut doesn't sound like too hard a project in and of itself. The big 3 thought they had the aftermarkets number when they installed ECMs with the PROM chips.

[lewtwo]

>> I am amazed at how some hackers manage to decode and extract the programming from a microcontroller that may even be a secure encrypted one no less. <<

They have a lot in common with locks ... it depends on how badly somebody wants in.