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[Brammofan]

From the Medford Oregon Tribune:

The skin and bones of Brammo's Enertia and Empulse electric motorcycles have exchanged hands. The brains and guts remain in the Rogue Valley along with the future of the company Craig Bramscher founded a decade ago.

http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20150122/NEWS/150129849

[MotoRyder]

Thanks BrammoFan for finding the article and posting the link here for those of us interested in knowing what the next chapter holds for Brammo.

Everything points to the current product-mix ending with the 2014 model years, and the progression to a new electric motorcycle manufacturer rising from the Empulse and Enertia ashes.

[Richard230]

I am going to be very interested to see if Polaris uses the Brammo power train in the future or tries to develop their own in-house.

[benswing]

I believe that is the point of purchasing brammo's electric motorcycle brand and still being an investor in Brammo power train company.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[teddillard]

"The Heart of Brammo Will Remain". 

I must be getting cynical and cranky in my old age.  Oh wait.  I've always been cynical and cranky. 

Kudos to the editors or the writer, though - it's a great title for a local economy cheerleading piece, in an area that severely needs the jobs.  As far as the story goes, there's nothing new to report, other than that Bramscher can continue to spin with the best of them. 

I can't wait to learn the actual facts, but I suspect it's going to take about 5 years and a lot of drinking to pry it out of some of the people who know the truth.     At this rate I'm going to be writing "The History of Electric Motorcycles" from the old folks home. 

Also, this photo:



Speaking solely as a commercial photographer (with 3 decades of experience), do we really want to see the Empulse production line with no signs of life save one lonely guy at a screen?  c'MON people.   

[MotoRyder]

Yes Indeed, I was thinking the same thing about the photo...that there was only one person in that whole space and only a few bikes in the production process.

The photo is as telling as the recent stories on the demise of Brammo motorcycles. 
However with BMW, Harley-Davidson, KTM, and Polaris, along with a multitude of smaller ventures, the collective belief of the future for the industry is strong.

[ultrarnr]

This has the potential for a Victory/Indian vs H-D battle with electric motorcycles. Polaris simply needs to build an electric version of what Victory and Indian already make using drive trains they got from Brammo. Especially if it is a full size cruiser. Think something like the V9 by Brutus.  Think 200+ miles of range and full L2 and L3 charging. This would really be easy for Polaris to do. But it would make for a very tough act for H-D to follow. Does H-D try to build an electric cruiser to compete against Polaris or continue what they started with the Live Wire? It would also be far easier for Polaris to sell a full size electric cruiser through its dealers than H-D. So this would be an area that Polaris would totally overrun H-D. Time will tell.

[teddillard]

My thoughts exactly.  So HD buys out Mission Motors, game on. 

[ultrarnr]

I think it would be funny to see Polaris "Out cruiser" H-D. But H-D would have to scrap the Live Wire and design an electric cruiser to compete or allow Polaris to have an electric motorcycle out there that looks far more like an H-D than the electric motorcycle that H-D builds. You just have so much more space to work with if you are building a full size electric cruiser than if you are going with a physically much smaller bike like the Live Wire or the Zero models. You don't realize just how small a Zero SR is until you park one next to a H-D Road King.

[Richard230]

What H-D would likely do if they were to build an electric cruiser is to to hide the batteries in a plastic 45 degree V-twin engine enclosure.   

Meanwhile the power cord could be hidden in the "muffler" and be pulled out of the end of the pipe to recharge the bike.  It all makes perfect sense to me.   

[ultrarnr]

I am sure it would be possible to configure the electronics needed for a L2 charger in the shape of a muffler and exhaust pipe! And yes, batteries can be set up in all sorts of configurations so why not shape them like a big V twin! Makes perfect sense! LOL!!!

[protomech]

Think something like the V9 by Brutus.  Think 200+ miles of range and full L2 and L3 charging. This would really be easy for Polaris to do. But it would make for a very tough act for H-D to follow. Does H-D try to build an electric cruiser to compete against Polaris or continue what they started with the Live Wire? It would also be far easier for Polaris to sell a full size electric cruiser through its dealers than H-D. So this would be an area that Polaris would totally overrun H-D. Time will tell.

It would be an interesting counterpoint to the H-D LiveWire story.

H-D: "Here's a cool concept bike, but it's got 50 miles of range and would cost $50k to build and *throws up hands* we don't know how to do better"

Victory: "Here's a 200 mile bike, it looks close-ish to what you're used to and supports the type of rides you want to do. And while it's far from cheap, it's priced at the upper end of Harley's existing range.... and it's a better motorcycle on the whole."

Polaris can't do it if they build ten bikes. Probably not a hundred bikes. But a thousand? Is there enough market at the very high end for a bike that leaps over existing electrics?

[ultrarnr]

What would it be worth to Polaris to completely blow H-D away? Obviously Polaris is the major competitor to H-D in the large cruiser market. And by now the whole world has heard about the Live Wire. H-D has gotten an amazing amount of press on this concept bike and the traveling road show continues in Europe for 2015.

Depending on how much back room planning and design work has already been going on at Polaris there could possibly be a 2016 Vicory /Indian full size electric cruiser being shown at all the major motorcycle shows this fall. This would come at a time when the Live Wire traveling road show is coming to an end. So at the same time that you are seeing press reports about the Live Wire traveling road show coming to an end and commenting about whether or not H-D is really going to produce it, Polaris begins showing a 2016 electric cruiser and suddenly everyone forgets about the Live Wire as Polaris now has the motorcycle world's undivided attention on a bike that will soon be on dealer showroom floors. It is very hard to put a price on what this kind of scenario would be worth to Polaris.

[benswing]

I think we're being overly optimistic, but it sure is fun!  The only thing we have to go on right now is a hint from the CEO of Polaris that they intend to have an electric Victory branded bike by this summer.  However, as you and I both know, it is a rare thing indeed for an electric motorcycle to come to fruition when it was supposed to.

Possibly they have been keeping the development of a an electric Victory under wraps so far (like HD with the development of the LiveWire), but that's just speculation at this point.  On the other hand, I sure hope they surprise us with a chrome-plated electric cruiser!  That would be an electric Victory.   

[MotoRyder]

I think we're being overly optimistic, but it sure is fun!  The only thing we have to go on right now is a hint from the CEO of Polaris that they intend to have an electric Victory branded bike by this summer.  However, as you and I both know, it is a rare thing indeed for an electric motorcycle to come to fruition when it was supposed to.

Possibly they have been keeping the development of a an electric Victory under wraps so far (like HD with the development of the LiveWire), but that's just speculation at this point.  On the other hand, I sure hope they surprise us with a chrome-plated electric cruiser!  That would be an electric Victory.

Well said Benswing!