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[Justin Andrews]

+1 Doug and I forgot to mention there are plenty of DC rapid chargers in the UK now. We'd always like a lot more to reduce the risk of bad luck, queuing and so on, but they're coming.

Just as long as you don't want to go into Wales. Wales seems allergic to DC charging...

As for the announce of the 2019 models, I'm guessing mid October?

[Killroy]

Traction control.

The off the line acceleration is obvioulsy throttled back so that riders don't loose traction and crash or loop the bike and crash. I want my Zero to go as fast as it can.   

[Richard230]

In slightly related news: Motorcycle Consumer News has a "teaser" on the last page of their magazine stating that a full test of a Zero DSR will be in next month's issue. I assume that will be a test of the 2018 model and not a 2019 bike. My guess is that Zero still has some unsold DSR's in the inventory pipeline that they felt will make good test bikes for magazine reviewers to generate a little positive press before the 2019 models are announced - whenever that will be. 

Another news item that I heard this morning is that bicycle parts are becoming much more expensive due to most of them being made in China and are now being taxed when sourced from that country. Future prices of bicycles and bike parts from Chinese manufacturers are being quoted to retailers as much as 25% more than last year and the bicycle retailers (Mike's Bikes were quoted) are scrambling to find part sources in other bicycle manufacturing countries, such as Taiwan, in order to keep prices for new bicycles and their replacement parts within reason. I sure hope that Zero is not going to be affected by this issue as they probably don't have alternate choices for their parts manufacturers.

[MostlyBonkers]

In slightly related news: Motorcycle Consumer News has a "teaser" on the last page of their magazine stating that a full test of a Zero DSR will be in next month's issue. I assume that will be a test of the 2018 model and not a 2019 bike. My guess is that Zero still has some unsold DSR's in the inventory pipeline that they felt will make good test bikes for magazine reviewers to generate a little positive press before the 2019 models are announced - whenever that will be. 

Another news item that I heard this morning is that bicycle parts are becoming much more expensive due to most of them being made in China and are now being taxed when sourced from that country. Future prices of bicycles and bike parts from Chinese manufacturers are being quoted to retailers as much as 25% more than last year and the bicycle retailers (Mike's Bikes were quoted) are scrambling to find part sources in other bicycle manufacturing countries, such as Taiwan, in order to keep prices for new bicycles and their replacement parts within reason. I sure hope that Zero is not going to be affected by this issue as they probably don't have alternate choices for their parts manufacturers.

I guess those parts manufacturers will just have to open up factories in the U.S. then... Wouldn't you like to see manufacturing come back to your home country? I'm not a fan of Trump, but I do think that manufacturing should come home. Automation should make it affordable.

[Richard230]

In slightly related news: Motorcycle Consumer News has a "teaser" on the last page of their magazine stating that a full test of a Zero DSR will be in next month's issue. I assume that will be a test of the 2018 model and not a 2019 bike. My guess is that Zero still has some unsold DSR's in the inventory pipeline that they felt will make good test bikes for magazine reviewers to generate a little positive press before the 2019 models are announced - whenever that will be. 

Another news item that I heard this morning is that bicycle parts are becoming much more expensive due to most of them being made in China and are now being taxed when sourced from that country. Future prices of bicycles and bike parts from Chinese manufacturers are being quoted to retailers as much as 25% more than last year and the bicycle retailers (Mike's Bikes were quoted) are scrambling to find part sources in other bicycle manufacturing countries, such as Taiwan, in order to keep prices for new bicycles and their replacement parts within reason. I sure hope that Zero is not going to be affected by this issue as they probably don't have alternate choices for their parts manufacturers.

I guess those parts manufacturers will just have to open up factories in the U.S. then... Wouldn't you like to see manufacturing come back to your home country? I'm not a fan of Trump, but I do think that manufacturing should come home. Automation should make it affordable.

That is a nice thought, but I don't see it happening. Manufacturers will go wherever they can to cut costs.  Even the Chinese are moving factories to Vietnam to cut costs as the labor in that country is even cheaper than in China. But I think several of Zero's components are so specialized that they may be stuck with higher prices if things don't get sorted out soon. I don't think they can eat any increases, so we might see prices for Zero motorcycles climbing next year, unless they can get innovative about cutting costs. Perhaps they were able to place a big order for the parts that they needed for MY19 earlier this year and that will buy them some breathing room next year. I am really going to be interested to see what changes the 2019 model year will have and how they will be priced. 

[wavelet]

In slightly related news: Motorcycle Consumer News has a "teaser" on the last page of their magazine stating that a full test of a Zero DSR will be in next month's issue. I assume that will be a test of the 2018 model and not a 2019 bike. My guess is that Zero still has some unsold DSR's in the inventory pipeline that they felt will make good test bikes for magazine reviewers to generate a little positive press before the 2019 models are announced - whenever that will be. 

Another news item that I heard this morning is that bicycle parts are becoming much more expensive due to most of them being made in China and are now being taxed when sourced from that country. Future prices of bicycles and bike parts from Chinese manufacturers are being quoted to retailers as much as 25% more than last year and the bicycle retailers (Mike's Bikes were quoted) are scrambling to find part sources in other bicycle manufacturing countries, such as Taiwan, in order to keep prices for new bicycles and their replacement parts within reason. I sure hope that Zero is not going to be affected by this issue as they probably don't have alternate choices for their parts manufacturers.

I guess those parts manufacturers will just have to open up factories in the U.S. then... Wouldn't you like to see manufacturing come back to your home country? I'm not a fan of Trump, but I do think that manufacturing should come home. Automation should make it affordable.

That is a nice thought, but I don't see it happening. Manufacturers will go wherever they can to cut costs.  Even the Chinese are moving factories to Vietnam to cut costs as the labor in that country is even cheaper than in China. But I think several of Zero's components are so specialized that they may be stuck with higher prices if things don't get sorted out soon. I don't think they can eat any increases, so we might see prices for Zero motorcycles climbing next year, unless they can get innovative about cutting costs. Perhaps they were able to place a big order for the parts that they needed for MY19 earlier this year and that will buy them some breathing room next year. I am really going to be interested to see what changes the 2019 model year will have and how they will be priced.

++
Automation is happening, and going to continue to happen, everywhere anyway (by every single metric the US is manufacturing a lot more that it ever did with a lot fewer workers; ditto in agriculture where self-driving combines are starting to be used, as well as drones for monitoring growth & water usage).
But nevertheless, given  identical automated plants in two different locations, the one with lower labor costs will still win, even if the labor costs are now the engineers & technicians that design, install, oversee and monitor the industrial robots.

[T.S. Zarathustra]

What Wavelet said. "given identical automated plants in two different locations, the one with lower labor costs will still win"
I thought that the US import China tariffs were only on bicycle parts. But I could be wrong. It would be no fun for Zero otherwise. They'd have to pay tariff to import the parts to US and then tariff if they'd export the bikes from US to EU. God bless the US president, he is really helping Zero to do their business, not.

[Richard230]

I guess we will have to wait to find out. I doubt that the electric motorcycle parts business is large enough for any reporter to investigate if those items are on anyone's hit list. 

[togo]

> But nevertheless, given identical automated plants in two different locations, the one with lower labor costs will still win, even if the labor costs are now the engineers & technicians that design, install, oversee and monitor the industrial robots.

It becomes the cost of *skilled labor* that wins, then.  And engineering is complicated.  A really effective engineer can be worth 10 or 100 engineers that have the skills "on paper" when it comes to keeping an automated plant running.

[Mudface]

Had a chat with a Zero Dealer today.

I've been told they will have the news we've all be waiting for next week

[Richard230]

Had a chat with a Zero Dealer today.

I've been told they while have the news we've all be waiting for next week

I am surprised that Zero is apparently keeping the date of the introduction of their 2019 models confidential.  They certainly wouldn't want to build up any suspense for their potential customers who might be interested in the new models. 

[heroto]

The part of bicycle imports that will be hurt the most by Trump tariffs is the ebike portion, that is bikes with electric assist, which is small but recently exploding segment.

Jobs coming back here at Chinese wages is not much of a plus for the US.

[dukecola]

In slightly related news: Motorcycle Consumer News has a "teaser" on the last page of their magazine stating that a full test of a Zero DSR will be in next month's issue. I assume that will be a test of the 2018 model and not a 2019 bike. My guess is that Zero still has some unsold DSR's in the inventory pipeline that they felt will make good test bikes for magazine reviewers to generate a little positive press before the 2019 models are announced - whenever that will be. 

Another news item that I heard this morning is that bicycle parts are becoming much more expensive due to most of them being made in China and are now being taxed when sourced from that country. Future prices of bicycles and bike parts from Chinese manufacturers are being quoted to retailers as much as 25% more than last year and the bicycle retailers (Mike's Bikes were quoted) are scrambling to find part sources in other bicycle manufacturing countries, such as Taiwan, in order to keep prices for new bicycles and their replacement parts within reason. I sure hope that Zero is not going to be affected by this issue as they probably don't have alternate choices for their parts manufacturers.

I guess those parts manufacturers will just have to open up factories in the U.S. then... Wouldn't you like to see manufacturing come back to your home country? I'm not a fan of Trump, but I do think that manufacturing should come home. Automation should make it affordable.

I agree. I'm willing to pay more if an American can hold the job. As for automation, while we will lose manufacturing jobs there will be a whole new sector for automation equipment design, manufacturing, repair, and maintenance.

[heroto]

Agree, but don't think for a second that this sector will employ as many as the "good ol days" of Motor City, etc. manufacturing dominance. In the past, labor was cheap and technology was expensive. Now it's the opposite, and no amount of treaty tweaking, tariffs, sloganing, blustering, or similar will change that. The new reality is what it is. So do we in the US put our heads in the sand pining for a past that simply will never come back,  or embrace and become leaders in the new reality? Look forward!

[Killroy]

Please be aware that China is actually really good at automation.  If you don't think so, look at your phone.

Automation is great, but its expensive and time consuming to design custom production lines, so in most cases, it requires volume.  Good manufactures do manual where it makes sense and automation when it makes sense.  Tesla is learning this lesson right now.

The problem with Zero is that Zero has zero volume.  Other industries would laugh at Zero's volume and that means that Zero does not have a lot of buying power.  I'm sure some of Zero's parts are off the shelf, but I don't think there is much volume there either.

What I want in 2019 is for Zero to increase it sales, make a profit and improve their company - better service, better reliability, lower prices, more models and accessories.  I don't know, but based on Zero's cash injections last year, I don't think they are profitable yet.  I've heard former employees say that they need to double there sales to break even.

I think tariffs are stupid.  They may protect a American job that his hanging by a thread, but I don't think it would get one back.