Resale value of the Zero gets mentioned a lot on this forum. It's true that the resale value is low. Actually, they are way under valued because the market currently doesn't understand the difference between an ICE that's 3-5 years old and an EV that's 3-5 years old.
The drive train just doesn't age on an electric vehicle they way it does on an ICE. A used EV motorcycle with a fresh battery is essentially good as new (power train, not counting shocks, tires, brakes, paint etc.). However, an EV motorcycle that is 3-5 years old isn't likely to NEED a new battery although the new owner might WANT one because of the technology progression in the 3-5 year time period. A brand new battery with technology that is 3-5 years newer is likely going to give a much better range and won't cost as much as the original battery due to falling prices.
But that 'old' battery isn't ready to kick the bucket just yet! Far from it actually! While you might not want to use it anymore on your motorcycle the value of the 'old' battery is much higher than the market realizes. Number one use case....turn it into a 'powerwall'. A Tesla power wall will set you back $3500 for 10kWh. A Zero 4 brick monolith is going to provide 10kWh+ depending on year. Assuming the battery is at 80% capacity in 3-5 years then that's still 8kWh available for home energy storage. Of course you will need some extra electronics to make it work as a powerwall but it's very doable. And you don't need to have solar panels in order to make use of it. You could charge up at night when rates are low and then use the battery during the day when rates are higher. And when grid power goes down you will have have a battery back up!
Since it's unlikely that most people would go through the trouble to do this themselves...rather than a lease option, I would like see Zero adopt a battery upgrade program. Allow owners to trade in the old battery for a reasonable price and then Zero collects the old batteries and gives them a second life. Nissan planned to do something similar from day 1 with leaf batteries (they don't offer upgrades that I am aware of...they just planned to collect batteries that get swapped after hitting the 80% capacity mark...mostly under warranty I think) but they are only just now actually making good on the plan because the batteries are lasting much longer than expected. If Zero adopted an upgrade program and let any owner take advantage of it, not just the original owner, then it would significantly increase the resale value since you could either upgrade before selling or use the upgrade program as a selling point to potential buyers. Seems it would boost sales too since people wouldn't be so concerned about the battery life and the possibility that new tech is just around the corner.
I think you highlighted the problem unintentionally there.
Sure the battery (if still good) makes a good power source, but you have to be an electrical engineer to take advantage of it.
To do your powerwall idea, you have to have a DC to AC inverter already wired up into the house.. unlikely unless you have solar. If you have solar its likely you have a net metering setup that cannot use a battery source... and even if you manage to have all that, it has to be capable of the voltages for 28s lipo.
so your potential market is limited to someone with all this already that sees your ad and has the desire to do it.
So powerwall idea is out.
The bike could be scrapped out for parts to other zero owners. This makes sense, except every part on the bike is fairly cheap except for the battery... and its a small market. So parting out the bike isnt a good solution. I know when I part out a motorcycle, I get the most for the engine, followed by suspension and wheels. Everything else is just a couple bucks.
Zero will continue to have a low resale value for reasons similar to ICE bikes that are in the same situation.
They need to upgrade parts of their bikes from year to year, as tech prices fall, problems are solved and better solutions are engineered... unfortunutatly this is leaving some people waiting for the next better bike. It happens all the time. Why get the new flagship Hondyamsuzsaki, when the all new CBR1GSZX is coming out next year? AND it makes the resale of the previous year tank a bit.
Then there is small market demand... People are not all looking for electric bikes. We know the bikes wont work for everyone, could work for some with some changes (in the rider or the bike) but some people will not change their demands from a bike when they can just get a "normal" bike cheaper that fits their needs. So until the first thing keeps progressing to hit this mark, this will remain.
So you have a bike that loses value quickly and is hard to resell. Sucks but its true. Its hard to accept because we both love the bikes, dont see an end to the above issues anytime soon, and most of us have a deeper belief that most that EVs are the future... but its true.
Good news is, some of us are willing to accept the cost diff in order to gain what the bikes give us.. that cool flying feeling.
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Topic: Could leasing boost Zero's sales? (Read 1725 times)