Doug "Read My Lips" because of the higher density/energy they take less space and therefore will fit. In addition, there is also plenty of additional space or did you forget about about the tank battery. In any case, no matter how Zero has to cram them in there, we don't care since it will lower the price of the bike $3-5,000 - that is unless Zero pulls an Elon on us and doesn't pass the saving.
Regarding your genius buddy Elon; my best advise is to "Study Up" before you start making broad statements about something you have no knowledge about, you don't have a clue regarding his crude business tactics of screwing the US tax payers out of money we gave him to start his business but I'll excuse your ignorance on the manner!
Regards
I had to do the math Low on Cash, you are right in one way, but it wouldn't work and here's why
Take your 2170, the interior volume is
(21mm/2)^2*3.14*700mm=242330 mm^3
The same amount of space for battery a Zero would take up is
21mm^2*700mm = 308,700 mm^3
or about 30% more. This means the volumetric density of the 21700 would have to be 30% higher than the Farasis cell.
The current Farasis cell is about 500 wh/L
The 3500 mAh Panasonic is about 700 wh/L
So initially it looks better, but they aren't packed wall to wall, there is some space for the cooling channels that don't just fit in the void locations.
But here's the kicker...
The 3500 Ah Panasonic cells Tesla uses have a max discharge of 3C
The current generation Farasis cell is 10C
So while the energy/volume is a wash pretty much, the bike would be over 3 times slower
There is a trade off between energy density and power density
If Tesla wants to continue to give acceleration updates, they will need to move towards a more power dense chemistry like Zero is using. If they did that they could supercharge even faster, and accelerate quicker, but they will lose a little range, or what is more likely is both will increase a little instead of energy increasing a lot.
Bottom line is you would need over 3 times the volume on the Zero to get the same power if you were using Tesla cells.
So the answer is no. Zero has the best possible pack for a motorcycle considering all the space restraints.
Does that make sense?
As far as the last statement, subsidizing new technology is not new. We still have to subsidize the oil and gas industry and they have been around a long time. It's something I have to remind some of my Trump supporting friends sometimes when they say we shouldn't have incentives for solar or electric vehicles. However its hard for them to understand. The common trend with them quite often is "low on brains"
lol, sorry. I had to, I'm laughing too hard not to share with others here. I know you and most people on this forum are smart enough not to have voted for Trump so I'll leave it for others to read. Luckily we have a fairly highly educated membership group here, so I'm guessing probably no Trump people, and to any of you who are, forgive me, not everyone is in that category, just seems like those I know personally who like him, also aren't the sharpest tacks in the box. I also just like to joke about him sometimes. He dislikes EV's and wants to bring back more oil, and coal instead, so you can imagine why I'm a little frustrated with him as a big EV supporter myself and big advocate of protecting the environment, and his appointment to the EPA was a guy who sued the EPA saying climate change isn't real. His appt to the Dept of Energy is someone who couldn't remember what the Dept of energy was in a debate! To appoint these people? I mean how dumb can you be? I want to start the catch phrase "Dumb as Trump" sometimes. Ahh, don't get me started. I could go on forever about how he's proven that inheriting a lot of money can make up for a very low IQ and NPD. (Narcissistic Personality Disorder)
I like ElectricZen's comment and I wish I could say it to him "Do you even science bro?" Hmmm. Sorry for the rant, not sure how I got off topic there. I think the article you posted sounded like it was written by someone misinformed about understanding how things work. I'll bring it back to "No" the 2170's would not be better in a Zero. Sorry about the rest of that.