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[evtricity]

I expected some more software changes, like enabling traction control and cruise control.
Hardware and electronics is there already.
For promoting modern technology they need to be more like Tesla, push the technology.

I'm aware that Zero have attempted to get traction control working but it simply is not supported by the Sevcon controllers at this time.

Major motorcycle manufacturers have spent tens of millions implementing traction control, wheelie control, slide control etc in their top end bikes. When you're only selling 2,000 bikes each year there's a much smaller pot of money to invest in R&D.

Zero have chosen a path in 2016 to increase volume through more models and are trying to keep costs down (on what are already expensive motorcycles) by maximising reuse across models. If you want hi-end features on an electric motorcycle then you'll need to compromise on price i.e. go down the Energica or Lightning Motorcycles path.

Having said that, if Zero's adoption of ABS is anything to go by, they will include these advanced features in their bikes but I'd suggest they want to buy them in at a reasonable cost rather than having to do all the R&D themselves.

[Justin Andrews]

Which is entirely the correct way to do it.
And to be honest, if I had to choose between a 5% increase in battery size each year, and whistles and bells like Traction Control... Then I'd pick the battery improvement every single time.

That they have improved the battery size AND kept the cost the same, is really good news. It shows Zero are passing the cost savings in battery tech along to us the customers, just like they promised they would years ago, again excellent news.

Personally I'm stoked about the 2016 bikes, and I forsee my 2013 will be traded in for one some point in the coming year. 

[firepower]

I missed the detail of the updated motor, that is good news, as long as they calibrate the sensors too
maybe we have been too spoilt by the increases in previous years. As long as they keep improving and making a better product for same price Im happy.

[CScalpeL]

I just don't get the stubborn lack of fairings...

It just seems like such a no brainer - increase range (especially highway which is needed most) and improved weather protection with minimal design and manufacturing costs and only a minute increase in weight.

[mrwilsn]

Could they have at least offered some new colors?? Like maybe a black option for the SR?  I know you can order plastic for an S and put it on the SR but it sucks that you have to pay extra just to change the color.

Any thoughts on placement of the J1772 charge connector on the tank itself?  Would this be more or less convenient than to have the connector next to the motor or even at the tail?  If Zero would sell the tank without the charger you could buy the DigiNow charger and might be able to use the Zero tank to get the connector at the tank.  My initial thoughts are that clearance under the tank might prevent this from being possible.  Any thoughts on doing this?

For anyone thats read through this thread its no secret that I would have liked to see more changes but I knew my desires were mostly long shots.....but they could have made a lot more minor changes....for example....all LED lighting....cruise control....reverse....parking brake...just to name a few.

The changes to the motor definitely cannot be overlooked...more efficient....faster cooling...increased thermal capacity.  I look forward to finding out how it performs in the real world.  Sounds like its begging for a bigger controller....for those that are into that kind of thing 

I don't have a car so my Zero is my only mode of personal transportation.  Therefore, I need to have heated seat, heated grips, wind protection, top box....these are critical when the weather is rough and you need to get groceries or get to work....but I have a short commute (25 miles round trip) so if I was just looking for something to commute with when the weather is nice the FXS looks like it would be a great option.  Theoretically you could add the top box and you could come up with solutions for heated accessories and wind protection for the FXS but to me that kind of seems to defeat the point of having a super quick and super light bike that you can flick around.

Random thought....FXS doesn't exactly roll of the tongue does it? Haha

[dsheibley]

Anyone think the 2015 will get a further price drop?

From the website I'm calculating both the 15 and 16 S with a powertank at $16669

Any of your more expert people got an opinion on this?

I'm trading in my 2012 S 9kwh

[Justin Andrews]

Anyone think the 2015 will get a further price drop?

My guess would be; Not in the near future.

My reasoning? We all are aware that batteries are steadily getting cheaper. Zero upped the battery capacity without increasing the price, so they've likely passed on the falling cost of batteries by increasing capacity. This is something that I believe Luke said they would do when and as the opportunity arose (their other longer game plan seems to be to start reducing overall weight and battery footprint when the bikes pack hits a certain unknown capacity). So unless there is another drop in battery costs in the next 6-8 months, then I think we are looking at the actual price of the Zero for the year.

[domingo3]

Looks like the base price of the 2016 S and DS are $1000 cheaper than the 2015, but the additional capacity battery is $1000 more to go from 9.4->13.0 than it is to go from 8.4->12.5.  Seems like a kind of odd pricing structure change.

[grmarks]

I imagine re-designing the motor is no small R&D item. Also all the batteries are bigger. So there has been plenty of work going on for the 2016 bike. With that behind them maybe for 2017 they will work on a fairing. I can understand the prioritising.
Getting the core of the bike right is the highest priority.

Great work Zero!

[grmarks]

Looks like the base price of the 2016 S and DS are $1000 cheaper than the 2015, but the additional capacity battery is $1000 more to go from 9.4->13.0 than it is to go from 8.4->12.5.  Seems like a kind of odd pricing structure change.

They probably use cheaper battery tech in the small size - plenty of room. The top size would have to be cutting edge battery tech and that would be expensive.

[protomech]

Right, to me the biggest news is the new Integrated Permanent Magnet motor!  This is huge!  It means less thermal cutbacks, cooler more efficient running, and more options for performance tuning as it won't necessarily have the same rpm limitations that the non IPM motors did due to glue and band strength.  The heart of the bike just got stronger!!  This is a pretty intense improvement!

How many complained about thermal cutbacks commuting?  You can't ever please everybody, but I'll bet it's mostly smiles from here on!

Zero is shipping 5 motors now:
- 75-5 PM (FX), 70 mph sustained speed
- 75-5 IPM (FXS), 75 mph sustained speed
- 75-7 PM (S/DS ZF9.8), 80 mph sustained speed
- 75-7 IPM (S/DS ZF13.0), 85 mph sustained speed
- 75-7R IPM (SR/DSR), 95 mph sustained speed

The PM motor sustained speeds are the same as last year (FX, S/DS). The S/DS ZF13 75-7 have the same sustained top speed as the 2014-2015 SR 75-7R!

The motors claim to have better thermal dissipating capabilities now, but the new IPM motor is also about 3% more efficient (making up numbers, but perhaps 90 -> 91% efficient). Since the motors were already quite efficient, small improvements in efficiency can cut heat production significantly (by 10% in my made up numbers).

Plus the FXS?  much more range (from 70 miles range last year to 90 miles this year!!!) and this bike will be a beast to ride around town! 3.8 sec 0-60 and less than 300 pounds?  For people with less than a 40 mile commute to work, this might be the absolute ideal vehicle to make you as happy as you can be each morning and evening.

I like seeing another battery improvement a year after seeing a big jump.  5% per year is better than Tesla has been doing.  In 4 years they went from 85 kWh to 90.  Zero went from 4.1 kWh to 15.9.  I'd say Zero is killing it compared to everyone else out there!

Last year Zero upgraded from 24.5 Ah Farasis cells to 27 Ah. It seems like they've upgraded again to 28 Ah cells this year, *and* the cells are slightly denser and produce more power! Last year Zero continued to use the 24.5 Ah cells in the FX to retain 20 kW with a single module. This year they've upgraded the FX range, still produces 20 kW with a single module, at no price increase.

Want to road trip?  Get either of the new charge tanks.  If you get the bigger DigiNow one, then the Zero can be your only vehicle as you can go anywhere with it.

"Can go anywhere" isn't quite the same thing as "convenient to go anywhere". Where there's a will there's a way, of course, but I don't know that even the DigiNow tank will sway anyone not already looking.

Without a fairing, the 2016 Zero S ZF13 + Power Tank has 98 miles of highway range. That's great, it's a huge improvement over a few years ago.

The official Zero Charge Tank helps, adds the ability to destination charge like the Empulse at 35 miles (combined riding) charged per hour. Similar to and slightly faster than the Victory Empulse TT, at about 28 miles (combined) charged per hour.

That's great, it means that trips like a movie or meal or hiking or playing in a park can add significant range. It also means the bike doesn't take 10+ hours to do a full charge overnight, for extreme commuters!

The DigiNow tank is even better. At 8-9 kW continuous power, it can charge the ZF13 bike about 80% in an hour, or 86 miles per hour (~64 highway miles per hour). That's not CHAdeMO levels of fast - a Nissan LEAF can add 60 highway miles in 30 minutes - but it's a higher charge rate than even the dual charger Model S.

My personal target is Nashville to Atlanta (~230 miles, all interstate) with about an hour of combined charging.

Tesla can do it with the Model S (0 to 20 minutes at the Chattanooga Supercharger). Model 3 should be able to do the trip with a short stop.

Nissan can barely do it with their new 30 kWh LEAF (60-80 minutes stopped over 3 QC sessions).

Even with the DigiNow externally mounted and a 2016 S ZF13 + Power Tank, the bike will require about 150 minutes of charging .. slightly more if only a single 32 amp EVSE is available. Still hugely impressive considering onboard charging only ..

Considering the Nissan LEAF didn't change almost a single thing in 6 years, I think it's quite impressive that Zero changes things each year.  Remember the Brammo Empulse we heard about in early 2010?  Polaris/Victory is now selling it and it also is almost exactly the same as we saw it 6 years ago too.  Zero Motorcycles does a pretty awesome job!

2016 Nissan LEAF SV/SL have about 25% more battery capacity than 2012 LEAF, at around the same cost. Not a bad upgrade IMO.

2016 Zero S has 44% more battery capacity than the 2012 ZF9, at the same cost! Plus double the power, improved top speed, better equipment, almost twice the highway range ..

[dsheibley]

So then they are the same price... makes my choice easy. I didn't know if the price on the website for 2015's reflected the recent price drop of approximately $1500 announced a few months ago.
Thanks all.

[Richard230]

Here are some press articles:

http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/zero/2016-zero-motorcycles-model-lineup-first-look.html

http://insideevs.com/zero-announces-2016-motorcycle-line-new-models-more-range-faster-charging-wvideo/

If anyone has specific questions I can answer them as I have a copy of the "press kit". It includes prices, specifications of all of the models and descriptions of all of the new features. Apparently there will be only one color offered for each Zero model.  Black will be featured in at least one of their models, plus the FX, P and MMX versions.  Also the power train components will be sold over the counter to customers who plan to use them to build custom electric vehicles. Prices range from a low of $8,495 for the ZF3.3 FX model to $18,669 for the ZF13.0 SR with the Power Tank installed.  The 13.0 SR with a Charge Tank will set you back $17,983 add all of the usual fees, taxes, shipping and dealer set-up charges to those figures to get out-the-door prices.   

[protomech]

So then they are the same price... makes my choice easy. I didn't know if the price on the website for 2015's reflected the recent price drop of approximately $1500 announced a few months ago.
Thanks all.

It did. The 2015 ZF12.5 bikes were introduced at the price of $15345, dropped to $13995 in May.

[NoiseBoy]

Why make 5 different motors? That sounds like a headache. The only reason I can think of is that the IPM motors are considerably more expensive than the old version. Or they have a ton of old motors in stock.