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[Richard230]

Just to give you an idea regarding the amount of employee layoffs occurring recently in the SF Bay Area, check out the attached portion of an article published in my newspaper today. That is likely why Zero was mentioned in the original post's link, but compared with these relatively dramatic layoff numbers, I imagine that Zero wasn't worth a mention in the general press. Frankly, I was surprised that the TV station even reported on Zero.

[Specter]

You get what you pay for.





-Don-  Auburn, CA

I havce YET to see a company anywhere who actually GETS this.  Im not talking coddling children bullshit like you see in these idiotic tictard videos with 'my day at work' and they might spend 15 minutes a week actually doing work but in general, companies have NO CLUE the value of a good technician, or engineer, or designer etc etc.  or a senior one who is not a total prima donna but actually an Intelligent one who EARNED his way up, and not kissed and slept his/her way up.

The young guy starting out might be happy with 25/hr but is NOT going to be able to fix those 'senior tech' things that bust at 3 am.  No matter how enthusiastic that young person is, they do NOT have the real life experience yet to go, hmm, I remember something similar from 2 years back.  No he spends 2 days trying his best to figure it out.  In the mean time, that's a highly PO'd customer, lost megawatt hours at the power plant get VERY expensive, lost production on the contact line get VERY expensive  to V$%on, so on and so forth.  The customer wants the money back for the 'enhanced service package' you schlepped them into purchasing...This is bad for everyone.

Now lets turn this problem over to the guy who gets 60/hr who's been doing this crap for 30 years, he goes hmm.. Looks thru a few logs and then says, Did you push THIS button again?  Umm Ahh... What did I tell you LAST TIME ??   Replace this card, tweak that, reset this, respool that and go thru your startup sequence, if you have any problems call back.  The plant / the customer is back online in an hour or two and back to making product.  The big bosses are going oh Hell Yeah !! this is totally WORTH spending 50k / yr for the advanced service package.

Nope -..  In the eyes of the accountant, well we can hire TWO of these techs for the price we pay that one, and then work them only 29 hours a week so we don't have to call them full time and don't have to pay them vacation, this or that either !!  Fire that old guy !  He's costing us money!

This economy is going to strangle a lot of people,  the startups, I hope they can survive.  They still have to pay wages, pay rent, pay insurance, pay this that etc.  if they ain't selling vehicles, its going to be brutal.

aaron

[DonTom]

Just to give you an idea regarding the amount of employee layoffs occurring recently in the SF Bay Area, check out the attached portion of an article published in my newspaper today. That is likely why Zero was mentioned in the original post's link, but compared with these relatively dramatic layoff numbers, I imagine that Zero wasn't worth a mention in the general press. Frankly, I was surprised that the TV station even reported on Zero.

Yesterday, I was at Elk Grove PowerSports. One of the employees there (Brian) was laid off from Zero. We must have BSed for two hours.


He tells me that Zero is mostly moving to the Philippines, and that is the reason for the layoffs. There will still be a small operation left in Scott's Valley,  but only for the bikes to be sold in the USA. Most of the stuff will still come from the Philippines first. All Zeros to Europe and other countries will soon be totally made in the Philippines with no USA involvement.


We also got into a discussion about how the SOC works on Zero. There is NO way we can calibrate it, just as M. Vetter mentioned. Brian says the SOC is coming from either the weakest or strongest battery cell in the pack (he was not sure which, as that was not part of his job at Zero), but not from the entire battery. If all cells are balanced well, it will make little difference anyway.


He told me he had no advance warning about the layoff. He came to work on a Monday--the first he heard about it--and was officially laid off at the end of the day. He then moved from Santa Cruz to Sacramento and got a job as a Salesman at Elk Grove Powersports. A salesman who really knows Zeros for a rare change.  They have a Zero DSRX there and he was able to answer my countless questions about the bike. I may consider trading a couple of ICE bikes in on one, but if I do, I will do it in Reno as that will be more convenient for me.


-Don-  Auburn, CA

[valnar]

Yesterday, I was at Elk Grove PowerSports. One of the employees there (Brian) was laid off from Zero. We must have BSed for two hours.

The takeaway I get from this is, after you spoke to someone who was laid off from Zero for 2 hours, you still want a Zero.  I consider that a positive endorsement.

Robert

[T.S. Zarathustra]

This was in the news recently.
"Electric motorcycle (e-bike) maker Zero Motorcycles has entered into a strategic manufacturing collaborating in the Philippines. Partnering with Integrated Micro-Electronics Incorporated (IMI), a division of the multi-faceted Ayala Corporation, assembly of Zero e-bikes is expected to begin in the second quarter 2023."
Also in the article. "The Laguna plant currently produces KTM motorcycles"

https://paultan.org/2023/03/30/2023-sees-zero-motorcycles-made-in-philippines/#

What surprises me is that apparently 10% of their workforce includes the whole production line. Makes me wonder how much they can really save by moving production elsewhere.

[princec]

Vast amounts.

Think about it: the entire KTM390 bike costs about $1000 to manufacture give or take. Imagine throwing out all the parts of the 390 that make it an ICE bike and then think how much it would cost to bung motor, battery, controller, and charger in there.

Cas

[Fran K]

Has this been on this site?

Hero MotoCorp and Zero Motorcycles have signed a deal, and will now co-develop EV products for India. Hero had earlier announced an equity investment of $60 million (Rs 490 crore approx). Now, the Indian two-wheeler giant will levy its expertise in scaling production, sourcing and marketing for Zero Motorcycle products.

[Richard230]

Has this been on this site?

Hero MotoCorp and Zero Motorcycles have signed a deal, and will now co-develop EV products for India. Hero had earlier announced an equity investment of $60 million (Rs 490 crore approx). Now, the Indian two-wheeler giant will levy its expertise in scaling production, sourcing and marketing for Zero Motorcycle products.

Now that is interesting news that I hadn't heard before. I imagine that Zero will need to design a low-price city-bike model for the India market. Most of the motorcycle buyers in the country are on a budget and I doubt they will be willing to pay the kind of prices that we pay for electric motorcycles.

[shayan]

Has this been on this site?

Hero MotoCorp and Zero Motorcycles have signed a deal, and will now co-develop EV products for India. Hero had earlier announced an equity investment of $60 million (Rs 490 crore approx). Now, the Indian two-wheeler giant will levy its expertise in scaling production, sourcing and marketing for Zero Motorcycle products.

Now that is interesting news that I hadn't heard before. I imagine that Zero will need to design a low-price city-bike model for the India market. Most of the motorcycle buyers in the country are on a budget and I doubt they will be willing to pay the kind of prices that we pay for electric motorcycles.

Agree that the likes of FST platform bikes are a hard sell in India for that price. Unless the charging infrastructure improves there, these cannot yet be marketed as sport touring bikes or one would spend that money only to do relatively short distances. For longer distances in India, I believe that a 120-140 miles on a single charge is realistic with most Intercity highways being 100kmph average. But the 500cc+ market is growing in the cities. So the likes of Zero S/SR underpriced with the FST platform could be a better sell on premium bikes there. Maybe the Gen2 platform with the 11kW config could also sell better as "premium commuters".