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[dkw12002]

Apparently Brammo is offering some fairly significant price reductions on 2013 and 2014 bikes....$7,000 off the regular price of the 2013 Empulse R, and $5,000 off the 2014s. The fact they even have new 2013s is probably an indication sales are not where they would like to be. Still, $11,995 vs $18,995 is a huge price reduction. I think this answers the question about if the price of electric bikes is negotiable too. 

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I would not characterize this as more than a singular event. My favorite motorcycle dealer is having 40% discounts, but it's only to support the owner's retirement via liquidation, so those are at/under cost. Do not pressure your dealer to lose money on a sale.

[lolachampcar]

and if Bramo is not making money on sales, they may have a hard time supporting the product in the future.....

[Richard230]

Thinking about Brammo's apparent attempt to sell out all of their remaining product by October.  I can think of a couple of business reasons for this promotion:

It may be that Brammo plans to seek additional financing from a financial institution and wants to show that they can sell all of the bikes that they can make and/or want to provide the maximum number of vehicle sales for the year, as that would likely make seeking new financing easier and provide a lower interest rate for the loan.

My other thought is that the owner and founder, CB, wants to sell out his interest in the company and move on to create another startup product (such as another type of EV).  That seems to be what he likes to do, based upon his previous business activities. Clearing out all of their inventory would likely make this sale easier and provide the new owners more flexibility. 

Or it could be that Brammo plans to initiate an IPO and hit the stock market next year.  Maximizing their product sales this year would likely make this easier and the potential stock price higher.  That would also potentially bring in the most amount of cash for the current stockholders, which would allow them to either invest further in the company or to cash out and move on to other business activities.

[pdm]

Or it could be that Brammo is coming out with a radically improved 2015 model, and they want to put it at the same pricerange as the 13/14 models, making them unsellable, so they need to get sold now.

[Richard230]

Or it could be that Brammo is coming out with a radically improved 2015 model, and they want to put it at the same price range as the 13/14 models, making them unsellable, so they need to get sold now.

That was the first thing that I thought of.  But there hasn't been the slightest rumor of such a new model that would justify a $5K to $7K reduction in the price of the old bikes.  Any why have the promotion now?  You could always drop the price when the new model is announced.     I can see wanting to clear out the existing inventory before a 2015 model arrives, but is there really all that many unsold bikes sitting on dealer's floors?  Have the Brammo bikes been selling that poorly?  That reduction in prices just doesn't make any business sense to me, although the late October date for the end of the promotion seems interesting.

Whatever it means, I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the future, whether that is new models (keep in mind that the Enertia bikes are also being discounted) or a change in company direction. 

I hope someone writes a book some day about Zero and Brammo that will fill us in on the early days of the production electric motorcycle business.

[dkw12002]

I test rode an Empulse r at Lone Star Triumph/BMW in Austin 16 months ago and it WAS the closest dealer for Brammo . They had only that same demo Empulse r available for purchase for many months. They had an Enertia for sale as well. When I returned 4 months later to get some recall work on my Triumph Street Triple r, they had those same 2 bikes. Both were for sale. Perhaps someone just ordered a new Empulse instead of buying the demo, but I think sales were very light.  As of April 15, they are no longer a dealer for Brammo according to their website. There is another dealership listed in Boerne, TX according to the Brammo dealer locator, but the dealership does not list any Brammo or mention Brammo on their website. Looks like what few dealerships Brammo did have in this area are no longer selling Brammos. Maybe they have given up with dealerships and are going to sell directly....or maybe this is the final year for Brammo electric bikes. Opinions? I could be all wet. Maybe Brammo will come out with a must-have model next month. I hope so, but it doesn't look like that. Without a dealer, I am not really interested though.

[Richard230]

This is an interesting news article.  Apparently the Brammo company is doing well - producing other products, batteries and EV equipment for various manufacturing customers, such as Polaris:  http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20140827/NEWS/140829737

Also, the Enertia factory in Europe didn't work out and the manufacturing of that model has been returned to Oregon.

[AustinSZF8.5]

I test rode an Empulse r at Lone Star Triumph/BMW in Austin 16 months ago...

I test rode that same bike in January....... before buying my Zero in May. Maybe I wasn't the only one to go that route?

[dkw12002]

I bet you are glad you did go with the Zero now. I certainly am, but it was an easy choice for me.  I didn't like 2 things about the Empulse: the weight, which was excessive I thought, along with the clunky, somewhat jerky transmission. Even having a transmission seemed unnecessary. That Lone Star dealer seems fine, just not as convenient as AF1 Racing since they also have a dealership in New Braunfels where I live.  Where would you go now for problems if you owned an Empulse? It looks like you might have to crate it and send it to Oregon. Several people are in that situation with Zero too, but many of them are pretty savvy do-it-yourselfers, so I guess they could do the same thing with an Empulse r. Not me. I wouldn't be surprised if someone on this forum bought an Empulse r though at those deep discounts.