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[Green Caledonian]

Hey,
I just got off the phone with Zero and they said they would be willing to try (no guarantees) and work out a plan to get the Zero S in the hands of the public before the AQUIP money is available but still allow for a means of applying for the $1500 rebate in California.  (In case you haven't heard, the AQUIP funds are still a couple months from being available.)  Good news for Californians on the waiting list for the S who don't want to wait until CARB gets its financial and management issues worked out around this new rebate.  How Zero will they do this?  Perhaps a lease to buy plan?? or some other set up that would keep them holding the pink slip until the rebates were paid out.  This might allow the actual purchase of the bike to be made after the AQUIP rebate start date and thus might allow the buyer to be eligible for the rebate.  Would this work?  I have no idea.  We will see what happens.

Cheers,
GN

[guity]

This would be extremely sweet.  I'm ready to buy as soon as they set something up.  When you say "no guarantees", did they give you any time frame as far as when they would have a definitive answer?

All I need is a test ride, a lease-to-buy plan, and for my machine to get built (hopefully one of the first 100), and I'll take a few days off, rent a pick-up truck and drive up north to buy it!

[picasso]

I might have to jump back in line if this is the case. $1500 off is a sweet deal.

[Green Caledonian]

Responding to the question about when Zero will have an answer regarding a way, through leasing or something some other method, to get the bikes into our hands in july or very early August buy not void our chance to get the $1500 rebate, they said they would get back to me "soon."  I have a test ride on a Zero X on July 10th so I am hoping they will have an answer by then.  If I hear anything I will post it ASAP.

-GN

[guity]

Thanks for keeping us posted.  My local rep keeps telling me there is no plan and there won't be any plan.  I asked him if he had checked back with HQ lately and he said (by email) that he was right then in the middle of a sales meeting (I presume it was an online meeting).  I don't know the guy yet, am hoping he will give me a test ride on the S some time this week, but he keeps complaining to me that I should be getting my information from him rather than the Internet. 

The way things are going, their final plan might be to let the ship dates slip a few more times (and sharpen up their products) until the rebates are ready!

[Green Caledonian]

   Well, it looks like there are no special deals from Zero after all for the CARB rebate.  Brian, the rep. gave me the word today.  They will give solid delivery dates in November so that when the rebate clears the gates buyers wont have to wait to get their bikes.  I am bummed but they said they could be flexible on the price a bit.  It might be worth it to me to get in three months worth of good weather riding if they could come down a bit.

-GC

[guity]

I still have some curiosity about the California $1,500 AQIP rebate, though I am not eligible.  Ironically, I was sweating bullets in July over whether I should buy a Zero right away and forgo the $1,500, or wait an excruciating 3-4 months for the rebate.  Now with the legitimate S not really coming until June, it appears I never really had a choice in the matter at all.  I did send an email over the weekend inquiring about the rebate, and it does appear the rebate will be a little more timely than the Zero S.  Here is the response from Johanna Levine:

The solicitation for the Clean vehicle Rebate Project grantee (project administrator) closed last Thursday.  We are now in the process of reviewing the applications and will select a grantee early November.  We anticipate rebates being available the first quarter of 2010.  For more information on what vehicles are eligible for rebates see section 2.2 of the draft Implementation Manual-  http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/aqip/solicitations/cvrpappb.pdf  Zero-emission motorcycles are an eligible category but there are certain qualifying criteria that the vehicle must meet.

*********************

It is interesting to follow Johanna's link and check out the regulations relating to ZEM's or Zero Emission Motorcycles.  One thing I noticed is that there is .8 million dollars allocated for rebates for ZEM's.  At $1,500 per rebate, however, I believe that comes out to about 532 people who will be able to get ZEM rebates before the money runs out.  Also, there appears to be some hoops for companies to jump through in order to qualify their vehicles for the rebates.  One that was interesting was that in order to qualify, the ZEM's would have to be covered with at least 2-year warranties, and at least the first four months of the warranty would have to be full coverage...