I think of all of the "upgrades" available the one that has me scratching my head is the option that allows you to tap more of the battery pack's capacity. With "range anxiety" being a big thing with most new EV buyers you would think that advertising the capacity of a larger battery on the base models, would get Zero more sales than telling their customers that it is available if you pay more in the future to use that capacity. 
I can understand the financial logic for Zero of the higher price to dig deeper into the battery pack, but if doing so will decrease the life or reliability of the battery without letting the owner know that might happen (most likely after the 5-year battery warranty has expired), that would be a "scam". I wonder how many people would pay extra to unlock that additional capacity if they knew that doing so would impact the life of the most expensive part of the bike? And once the word gets around, would that decrease the resale value of that upgraded Zero?
Agreed. I was just presenting the other side, not saying I necessarily agreed that it's the right strategy. The $200 reverse is the most glaring cash grab, in my mind. I read somewhere a while ago that these upgrades will not transfer to a second-hand buyer and will revert once a new person's Zero app gets connected to the bike. So not only will a new buyer have a battery with higher degradation, but they won't even be able to use the extra capacity unless they shell out another $2,200. So Zero has now reaped $4,400 on a single bike and all they had to do was send a couple of signals: Nice work if you can get it! If that means that the app has to phone home and communicate with the bike, though, I'm expecting these upgrades to intermittently turn themselves off given Zero's recent track record on software and firmware (like the recent incident where SR/F's were downgrading themselves to SR specs). People are already chagrined enough about these upgrades, but when people shell out of them and then they don't consistently work, it's going to result in a lot of sales for Livewire and Energica down the road.
This business of upgrading a Zero by paying more to unlock features installed in the bike continues to rub me the wrong way - as a motorcycle enthusiast who has been buying motorcycles for the past 60 years. One thing Zero and other EV manufacturers need to remember is that there is no vehicle customer base more conservative than motorcycle enthusiasts - or at least that is the way it has always been up until now. Has anything changed? Not in my experience during my visits to Alice's Restaurant and talking to the motorcycle owners that hang out there on Sundays. They really don't seem to have much interest in EVs. It has been several years since I have seen an electric motorcycle parked at Alice's Restaurant, where I go for breakfast every Sunday. The people buying new motorcycles that I see at that hangout are buying large-capacity BMW and KTM ICE bikes, not EVs, for similar money. And many more seem to prefer to remove their mufflers so that they can make as much noise as possible - something that you can't do when you own electric.
We're still in the early-adopter phase. The Experia looks amazing, but it still doesn't have semi-active suspension and many of the other desireable features of the similarly-priced Multistrada V4, and most non-enthusiasts will be turned off by the 40-min charge times. That means a few more years until the average gas bike buyer in that segment would even start to consider one, and then it's a slow build of mindshare and a slow trickle of super-fast charging and high range making their way down the price stack.
Most of the current die-hards will age out of riding before they buy electric, but e-moto's do attract people who never would have been interested in gas bikes. When I got my M1, I had no interest in ever riding or owning a gas bike, but I ended up owning a few of them because I got addicted to riding and I couldn't afford an electric. There's something about the extreme riding efficiency and ability to beat traffic that makes some people consider an electric two-wheeler who never would have had any interest in the culture of motorcycling.
By 2030, most new cars will be EV's, and anyone buying a gas machine is going to be paying similar money for something that is less powerful, has much higher fuel and operating costs, and is considered old-fashioned. Motorcycles, though, seem to be about 8-10 years behind cars given the increased difficulties of weight, available space, and handling sensitivity. Not to mention the smaller economies of scale in the e-moto industry. I do think that certain e-motorcycles will be among the top selling models by 2030, and in certain segments a company might start to sell more of an electric version than a comparable gas version, but I don't expect the majority of bikes sold to be electric until 2035 at the earliest.
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Topic: Yammie Noob complains about Zero electric motorcycles (Read 2573 times)