Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[manlytom]

all, found this a spot on review. and like the picture with a whole bunch of Zeros' cruising the countryside. Guess we need to organise some group rides now. So you is in Sydney ?

http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/magazine/3150.asp?id=15902

T

[Lipo423]

Guess where these pictures were taken...Sitges, Barcelona, Spain...

[Richard230]

Thanks for posting that review, manlytom.  I hadn't seen it before and it is a good one. I found it interesting that Zero's production for this year is 1,500 bikes.  I hope they can sell every one. The more they sell, the more likely the industry will progress and become more established worldwide.

You have a beautiful county, Lipo423.  That was a great place to introduce the Zero models in Europe.   

[protomech]

"Intends to build" is good. "Builds and sells" is better. I hope they sell all of them.

[blake]

great review. thanks for the link

[Lipo423]

Cannot agree more with you. Let's hope they sell them all!!

[zap mc]

Even if they do thats only about $15M revenue less wages of maybe $3M and whatever it costs to make them say $5000 each, thats $7.5M which leaves about $4.5 to pay the loan and next years R&D. Not sure how they are going to continue?

[protomech]

I suspect R&D is mostly covered by wages. I don't know what Zero's operating costs are; I have no doubt Brammo and Zero are operating at a net loss currently. But that's the nature of an emerging technology competing with a very mature and established industry.

If sales are still low (~1k/year) in a few years and they're still losing money .. then the OEMs will completely overwhelm them.

[CliC]

I'm afraid some of the big bike manufacturers, especially those like Honda and BMW that have well-developed EV tech on the automobile side, may eventually overwhelm them anyway, if they smell a market for e-bikes.

But that's one reason I bought the Zero, and paid a premium relative to a similar IC bike; to help Zero Motorcycles succeed. And if it wasn't meant to be, then to show other more well-funded companies that a market is there (in addition to owning a little piece of history).

[Lipo423]

I agree with protomech,
Mostly of their R&D is covered by wages, and they are horizontally integrated (main components are subcontracted/manufactured by a 3rd. party, they are basically an assembling line).
When you look at the rates they are manufacturing today (if it is 1500 units a year, that means an average of around 6 bikes a day).
There is plenty of room to increase manufacturing capacity and they got some funding from the government, they just need the demand -which I believe is out there-

Normally financial payback for a NPD is 1.5-2 years

[oobflyer]

I spoke with Steve Wakefield (the writer for this review). I wanted to know about the statement:

getting a good top-up (say 80%) on the non-dismountable battery can be achieved in a couple of hours

His Reply:

"I don’t really understand the science, so may have got the two hours thing wrong"

I also asked about the range:

in total some 130-140 kilometres of reasonably hard riding up and downhill

His Reply:

"We genuinely did between 123-145 km!"

Coincidentally - I drove that same route a few years ago (Barcelona to Sitges) - it is a beautiful, twisty ride. 

[Richard230]

Here is a link to some "teaser" 2012 Zero S review comments by the British motorcycle magazine Motor Cycle News: 

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/First-rides-tests/2012/April/apr1212-zero-s-big-step-forward-for-electric-bikes/