The Zero team is too smart not to know exactly what they were doing when they led some of the most enthusiastic Zero owners through the factory floor in the midst of building 2017 bikes. Before the tour started they gave very explicit instructions about not using a camera on the tour under penalty of being asked to immediately leave. But that doesn't mean we don't all have eyes. And to top it off, they even told everyone that 2017 bikes "may or may not be visible during the tour". So they prepare us for the possibility that we might see a 2017 bike and then they walk us right past 2017 bikes...close enough to reach out and touch if they hadn't also told us not to touch anything
. Of course, they had complete control over what we would (and wouldn't) see when we saw the 2017 models.
So, with all that said, I can't completely rule out the possibility that it was all staged to mislead us into thinking there wouldn't be a battery improvement for 2017 thus making a battery capacity increase reveal more unexpected....but it seems highly unlikely.
So here is what I actually saw....
There were maybe 6-8 bikes on the assembly line in various stages of completion. Every bike had an 8 1/2" x 11" sheet of blue paper hanging from the handle bars inside a see through slip case. The blue tag hanging from every single one of the bikes had a LARGE number 17 on it....hmmm....wonder what that could mean.
Looking closer at these sheets and you could clearly see the model, battery configuration and color. So I saw some blue tags with "DS13 Orange". Also saw some blue tags with "DS6.5 Orange". Looking at the monolith of the bikes with a blue tag with DS6.5 Orange I saw a ZF6.5 plate. I also saw a blue tag with "DSR13 Graphite". So it would appear black is gone (RIP) and graphite is in. The bikes didn't have tanks on them yet but there was a rack off to the side with many tanks on it and I spotted the graphite....I look forward to seeing what it looks like on the bike in proper lighting.
Looking at Zero's own website for some perspective....
http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/10-years/I won't go all the way back to 2006 and I won't cover every detail of every change from year to year...just enough to establish a pattern...
2012 - The year Z Force is born. This is when zero started using pouch cells (ZF9) instead of cylindrical cells.
2013 - Zero bumps to present day voltages (102V nominal, 116V max). They are still using the same pouch cells as in 2012 (25Ah) but the raise in voltage means the ZF9 turns into a ZF11.4. This is also the year they introduced the Zero designed motors.
2014 - Zero still uses 25Ah cells (yep....3 years in a row) and since the voltage also stays the same it means a return of the ZF11.4. BUT....this is of course the year of a new high amp controller (hello SEVCON size 6) and they use high temp magnets in the motor to debut the Zero SR.
2015 - Zero bumps to the 27Ah cells to make a ZF12.5 but the motor and controller remain unchanged. This is the year of brakes, tires, wheels and suspension. I think this is Terry's favorite year
OK....probably every year ends up being his new favorite (and 2017 is not likely to be an exception) but 2015+ is the cut off that he unashamedly encourages everyone to move towards.
2016 - Zero bumps to the 29Ah cells to make a ZF13 and they debut the IPM motor. They also bring the size 6 controller to the DS to make a DSR and put street tires on the FX to make the FXS supermoto. And of course this is also the year of the charge tank.
Which brings us to 2017 - Indications are that the ZF13 is back and a new ZF6.5 available for the S/DS. For a while I considered the possibility that Zero was going to start using nominal capacity instead of max capacity for naming their battery packs...since the nominal voltage of a 36S pack would be about 116V (150V max) it would coincidentally mean that nominal capacity would be 13kWh....but that was just a combination of projecting my own desires and a refusal to accept the fact that the battery capacity wasn't increasing for 2017 (I'm over it). The IPM was just introduced last year so with the exception of blessing the FX with an IPM, the motor probably won't change....maybe refinements but not a totally new design.
But I give it about a 0% chance that's the full story for 2017. If it was, why not just announce at AIMExpo....or just tell everyone the specs at the Zero 10 year anniversary event? The cost of floor space at EICMA has to be more than at AIMExpo. It costs more to get everyone and the bikes to Italy. Press coverage is more intense. So, does anyone think they would put a bright expensive spot light on themselves if that was all they had to announce? I think not.
So what is the pattern that we can pick out from all of this? I think it's that Zero consistently improves the bikes year after year....unlike an ICE motorcycle OEM that can make essentially the exact same bike for several years. To be fair, if you are building upon technology that has been in the mainstream getting better for over 100 years...why fix what isn't broke. And the big OEMs will also take an approach of moving model to model rather than making changes across the lineup. But Zero is advancing a technology that has been available for over 100 years but hasn't benefited from the constant iteration and improvement that comes with mass market adoption. Instead, each year they have to pick the focus areas for each model and let the other areas remain unchanged or minimally changed. Then the following year the focus area moves to one of the areas that wasn't changed or was minimally changed the previous year. And repeat.
So what can all of this tell us about what the focus areas were for 2017? I have some ideas but let you draw your own conclusions for now.
So why did Zero let everyone who went on a factory tour see that the battery capacity wasn't changing for 2017? I think it's very possible that it was basically a deliberate leak in order to give the die hards some time to get over the fact that range isn't increasing this year and move on to the exciting stuff that IS improving for 2017. Was that the motivation? I don't know. But they certainly wouldn't be the first company to intentionally leak information about a soon to be released product for one reason or another.
As far as the practicality of a ZF6.5 S/DS....no doubt it's not a bike for everyone. The range has to work for you or its an obvious non starter. But it doesn't cost Zero that much to offer the configuration and brings down the entry price of the more commuter focused S/DS models. I imagine the primary market is people that would potentially go for an FXS as a commuter because of the lower price point but want some storage and faster charging. Even without a charge tank, an S/DS6.5 would have 1.3kW of onboard charging compared to the 650W you get on an FXS....so could be charged in half the time. And there's no reason to believe the charge tank wouldn't be compatible with the S/DS6.5 which could get you charged up in about 1.5 hours....assuming the same 3.8kW max charge rate as is available on the 2016 bikes.
It reminds me of the way almost every single smart phone OEM continued to offer phones with only 16Gb memory long after most people considered 32Gb to be the minimum amount of storage needed for a smart phone. But it allows them to say "starting at just..." even though they will immediately up sell the majority of customers to the higher memory options...paying extra for double the range is a lot easier sell than paying extra for a 33% increase as is the case going from ZF9.8 to ZF13. However, you still have the lower price model for those who just can't afford or don't want to spend the money on the higher capacity battery.
I think the side affect is that people who buy an FXS gets narrowed down to just the people that are looking for that style of bike and the buyers who just went to the FXS for the lower price point migrate to the S/DS6.5.
