The other thing that we all have to keep in mind is that electric propulsion technology that is applicable to a small motorcycle frame is not well established or supported by the component industry. There just isn't a large enough market to develop specific technology for this application - yet. Most of the advancements are going to have to come from the automobile industry, which is much better funded and buys components in vastly greater volumes than does Zero, and the like.
A lot still needs to change, such as the high-speed electric motorcycle market going from sales of maybe 2000 units a year to 200,000 units a year. When that happens, the big motorcycle manufacturers will jump in, component prices will drop and performance will dramatically increase. I don't see something like this happening within the next ten years - unless there is another 1970's-type "gas crisis", or government pollution regulations become so draconian that electric vehicles are the only personal transportation that can be sold to the public, as has been discussed in some countries in Europe.
I'm aware that BEV bikes are still a tiny market (although Zero itself already sold 2400 bikes in 2014; 2015 was "a lot less than 10K" according to their VP sales, but I thought they were already in the ~5K units/year territory -- can't find a reference a.t.m.) -- just like motorcycles are a small market compared to cars with the attendant disadvantages of low-volume production.
I'm not expecting propulsion tech per se to be as advanced & compact as for BEV cars... I also realize that the real difficulty in achieving good efficiency at high-ish speeds is in making bikes aerodynamic without fully enclosing everything including the rider. That's after all the reason for the really bad fuel economy of ICE motorcycles vs. cars, despite the much lower weight (30mph city scooters excepted).
I also understand Zero is trying to be very cautious, having seen what happened to every other would-be e-motorcycle maker (jury being still out on Energica) and wanting to avoid the same fate. The attempt the last couple of years to focus on fleet sales is clearly part of that, and smart IMO.
All that said, there are points in time where any startup company has to take risks. I'm thinking Zero is at or near that point... A lot of the street-motorcycle market uses bikes for weekend/vacation leisure trips, with or without commuting added (actually, in the US, I'm pretty sure that market's far larger than commuting). I have a lot of environmentally minded, and/or tech-minded, riding friends, none of whom would consider a bike they can't take weekend day trips on (*).
This is what I mean by a "day trip", in my neck of the woods:
— ~100mi at ~70mph on the freeway to get to the fun roads;
— ~100mi ditto to get back home
— ~150-200mi at a range of slower speeds (30-60mph, but a lot of acceleration/deceleration) on the twisties & sweepers.
(and a bit more than that for a bit of emergency reserve, like accidents, breakdowns etc.)
That doesn’t mean a 400mi range is needed on a single charge, but for a reasonable day-tour experience, I want to be able to do it with at most 2 charging stops (one 45min at lunch, and an additional 30min one).
Look, I'm not asking for radically denser or cheaper batteries or motors. My criticism of Zero is that they're not addressing the two big issues necessary for this (
much more important than a 10% improvement in cell capacity, IMHO):
1) Improving efficiency via aerodynamics, which is clearly possible and necessary (and Electric Terry has demonstrated that it's possible in practice, even on a bike with lots of extra battery & charger weight).
Yes, I'm sure Zero doesn't have any aerodynamics experts in-house, let alone a wind tunnel. But they could certainly team up with a fairing maker for this and sell the resulting fairings either themselves, or as dealer-installed add-ons, for serious mark ups.
2) Quick Charging is a huge deal.
a)Even with the new Charge Tank, it's ~1.5hr to charge the new S to 80% (for ~80mi highway riding).
b) Without it, the stock charger is borderline even for overnight. If I return from a trip or from work late at night, I may not have >6 hours of charging until I need to ride the next morning to work, so it's going to take 2 days+ of night time charging to get back a full charge... If I don't have workplace charging but need the full highway range (~80mi) for a long trip before then, I'm in trouble. Even if high-rate charging takes a lot of space on the bike or would be very expensive, not having 2-3kW as standard AC charging is inexcusable, particularly in 220V countries like here, where every single wall outlet is capable of a sustained 15A 220V (I have a 3kW electric kettle).
b) Energica seems to be able to fit a DC CCS charger, a 3kW AC charger and a ~12kWh battery on a bike, on a slightly longer bike with similar-capacity battery. Yes, it's a lot heavier (mostly because their batteries are less dense, IIRC), but still, that includes the fairing. CCS is gaining quick acceptance everywhere (except possibly Japan), and essentially all DCFC stations going forward will support it. The Energica charger does 20kW, from reports I've seen, which is quite enough for 80% of a 13kWh in 30min.
In the future, once there are bike design with additional battery bricks for 21kWh / 28kWh, that extra charging speed will be absolutely necessary anyway.
If that solution is too expensive for Zero to have it standard, make it optional but leave space for it so it doesn't take up lots of space.
Without both those improvements, any kind of day-trip use-case is out. Nothing against Diginow's solution, but it requires a
lot of DIY and messing about with electrics, aside from the space and expense. That's a pretty big barrier to adoption.
With both above improvements, and a battery like the new 2018 models', I could get 100-110mi on a "tank" at slightly lower highway speeds than I'm used to, with 10-15 mi of safety margin -- I could compromise on that as an early-adopter, but below that, my entire justification for a motorcycle is out.
Anyway, I am going for the "bird in the hand" and not the "one in the bush". 
That's just it -- if Zero was willing, I'm sure this would be doable in 1-2 years, not 10.
(*)We have a 250% Customs Duty on motorcycles, and "only" 80% on electric ones...
Mandatory liability insurance (1st+3d party medical only, not damage to any property) on a >250CC bike with max discount for a 50-y.o. rider with no previous claims or license suspensions would be the equivalent of US$1130 .
Annual comprehensive coverage (to the bike itself + 3d party property) for, say, a new R1200GS (MSRP and street price ~US$40100) would be an additional US$4000 (not a typo).
So most folks here can't afford to keep 2 bikes...
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Topic: Zero has released 2018 models. (Read 4777 times)