ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2013+ => Topic started by: gstrub on July 23, 2023, 09:25:39 PM
-
Here is a quick video I made of the issues I am having with my 2020 SR/F premium:
https://youtu.be/WPTp3eoF-j8
Briefly, the battery drops like a rock when riding, then has massive magic charge. I can only go 27 miles now on a single charge, but can get 120 miles out of the battery if I just do short trips each day. Also the estimated time to charge is way off and the bike will just sit at it's target but keep charging.
Anyway, I plan to head to Zero in the fall (dealership is quite a trip) so I will update everyone then.
Thanks,
G
-
And now that you've documented it in a public video, expect them to blacklist you on your warranty and block you on the more public groups...
-
Wait what?
I would think it would be an opportunity for Zero to demonstrate the ease of a warranty battery replacement, thus bolstering their customer service reputation. People understand equipment issues especially on first year models, but people do not like it when companies don’t fix the issues. I have no reason to be upset with Zero and I fully expect the issue to be resolved one way or the other.
Also this is a known issue which has been well documented by others. What makes you think Zero would take punitive action against me? They have been great with me so far.
-
That's what they did to me.... For using their own quiq chargers on my SR, and running into the equivalent issue on the older SR. Refused to warranty my powertank, and then blocked me from the groups they could.
-
What was the reason they stated for refusing the warranty? Surely it could not be that you posted the issue to a forum dedicated to people with Zero issues…
-
Here is a quick video I made of the issues I am having with my 2020 SR/F premium:
https://youtu.be/WPTp3eoF-j8
Briefly, the battery drops like a rock when riding, then has massive magic charge. I can only go 27 miles now on a single charge, but can get 120 miles out of the battery if I just do short trips each day. Also the estimated time to charge is way off and the bike will just sit at it's target but keep charging.
Anyway, I plan to head to Zero in the fall (dealership is quite a trip) so I will update everyone then.
Thanks,
G
Thanks for taking the time to document this all. I'm seeing nearly exactly what you're seeing on my 2020 SR/F premium. I haven't noticed any lurching. I hope to hear back in a few days how the service on my bike will proceed with Zero.
-
I sure hope they are not blocking / banning people for publicly pointing out issues in a shall we say, professional way.
That kind of behavior is typically what you see right before a company goes under for good, as the up tops are trying to grab whatever money they can and run. ie DON'T TALK BAD ABOUT THE COMPANY BE STUPID BLINDLY LOYAL....so I can get my money and run while you rubes are left holding the bag. Seen AOL and countless other companies do it over the years.
+1 on what was the reason for warranty refusal, and why did they ban you, they had to give some excuse.
Seems theres a bit more to the story here.
Aaron
-
Of course they couldn't directly say that, but there aren't too many other ways to take the progression of events. They claimed that my actual use of their official QuiQ fast chargers at the time was the cause of the issues, because they accused me of using aftermarket chargers. My participation in these boards was what what lead them to believe that I was using an aftermarket charger rather than theirs. They stopped supporting me, sent the accusations to my dealer (who seemed to believe them even though I purchased the QuiQs from them!), refused to deal with my defective battery, and stalled until the warranty expired. All over being public about the SOC issue early in my ownership of the bike. They read these forums, and there are few enough of us that they know who we are.
-
Them stalling until the warranty expired? That could get them in trouble via a lawsuit or BBB etc.
If the problem is reported before the warranty is expired, then they legally i believe HAVE to honor it, as it occurred, AND was reported before the warranty ended.
Them 'ignoring' you don't work either. They have to really tell you why they didn't honor it and not just hem and haw.
For a legitimate company, this seems very shady at best. People talk on the internet, right here, right now, they'd get shredded for shady crap like that. I can't see an honest company wanting to risk it on something like that, just seems so odd.
Maybe Im just spoiled.. I mean, Energica has honored pretty much any stupid little thing I complained about, and didn't even really contest it either, they just, yah we'll fix that. There is not much competition yet, on E motorcycles, but the little there is, is pretty tough. Id expect a company would follow a path of good customer service if they wanted to stay around.
Is this a case of you get what you pay for?
Aaron
-
Just to add brilliant video showing exactly what happened to me. Thanks.
I'm (apparently) getting a new battery in my 2019 SR/F.
pete
-
Getting a new battery as well!
-
Getting a new battery as well!
Hope it goes smoothly! It took about three months for me, but they did eventually replace the pack under warranty. For months they kept saying the logs showed everything was ok and telling me that the range estimate was just that, an estimate (and obviously 40 miles total range is not right). I had to go out to the shop and ride it down from 100% to 0%, and they still said everything was fine, even though it wasn't even 40 miles. The owner of the shop had to do that again, showing the SoC dropped about 3% per mile. Finally, Zero flew an engineer out to the shop and replaced the pack on mine (and I believe a couple other bikes that had been languishing for months).
The new pack has been great. I'm watching the SoC like a hawk while it's too cold to ride for a few months now, keeping it near 60%.
-
Took about 2 months for me to get a new Battery for my 2019 SR/F Premium, not that bad considering. I hope the battery manufacturer is helping with the warrantee costs, that has to be an ugly number ($$$). My bike has been better than ever since the new battery. The new plastics were a nice bonus since I had some scratches on the lower ones from letting the bike roll off the kickstand onto it's side once. Now if I could only ride more (the bike has been put to bed for the winter).
I wonder if this problem will end up hitting all the early bikes?
Steve
-
Took about 2 months for me to get a new Battery for my 2019 SR/F Premium, not that bad considering. I hope the battery manufacturer is helping with the warrantee costs, that has to be an ugly number ($$$). My bike has been better than ever since the new battery. The new plastics were a nice bonus since I had some scratches on the lower ones from letting the bike roll off the kickstand onto it's side once. Now if I could only ride more (the bike has been put to bed for the winter).
I wonder if this problem will end up hitting all the early bikes?
Steve
The batteries in my daughter's Zero 2014 S and my 2018 S are still working as well as they ever did. :)
-
Took about 2 months for me to get a new Battery for my 2019 SR/F Premium, not that bad considering. I hope the battery manufacturer is helping with the warrantee costs, that has to be an ugly number ($$$). My bike has been better than ever since the new battery. The new plastics were a nice bonus since I had some scratches on the lower ones from letting the bike roll off the kickstand onto it's side once. Now if I could only ride more (the bike has been put to bed for the winter).
I wonder if this problem will end up hitting all the early bikes?
Steve
The batteries in my daughter's Zero 2014 S and my 2018 S are still working as well as they ever did. :)
I mean the early SR/F's. Should have been more clear on that.
Steve
-
Im glad you got your battery issue sorted out, and better yet THEY picked up the tab.
Battery probs like that tend to be batch related, so there is a good chance that pretty much all those bikes are going to be affected sooner or later. The fact that it is a well known problem, and they are replacing them FOC, kind of implies this as well. Still though, even with it being covered by warranty, the Bike manu is still taking it in the shorts. He still has to pay the labor charges to the bike shop to remove / install the battery, not to mention the terrible PR this causes them as well. Then there's the shipping / disposal of the bad battery, yah it can get expensive fast.
Too bad they don't have a viable recycling program for these batteries. I get sick and tired of constantly hearing all over the news about how rare lithium is (bullshit), and how expensive the batteries are because of that, (more bullshit), when we throw away thousands of tons of processed lith in the form of dead batteries annually. So you mean to tell me that with all the amazing tech we have and all the new stuff that shows up every year, nobody has yet to figure out how to freeze these batteries, so they stop reacting, then chop them up and recycle them?
While it's not the most efficient operation and all, Ive been recycling LiPo's by essentially the same thing. THe lith I keep under oil so it don't react, and those things are very heavy in copper as well which I take straight to the scrap yard. The BMS boards get recycled as well once I recover the gold / Pd out of them. If some backyard dork like me can do it, why can't this be done on an industrial scale?
Aaron
-
AIUI Zero were quietly replacing every single one of the 2019 and 2020 14.4s here in the UK as every single one eventually exhibits the problem.
I got mine done a couple of months ago but alas the belt snapped again on the way home and I haven't had the heart to ride it again :( I just don't trust the bastard not to leave me stranded, and now I'm wondering what to do about it.
Cas :(
-
Cas, not to hijack the thread but how are you snapping belts like that? Something has got to be wrong for that to keep happening?
Hate seeing someone with a bike they are afraid to drive when the solution may be simple.
Aaron
-
Too bad they don't have a viable recycling program for these batteries.
Obtaining lithium from recycled batteries is apparently 5x more expensive than mining it. At least that's down from 7x a couple years ago. (source: Wikipedia Battery_recycling)
-
But if it is getting so rare to find now, the way they act when they jack the price to the moon, why NOT the batteries. It's not THAT hard, the Chineese use slave labor anyways for what they pay them, so what's a few people doing it more manual than by machine?
ill have to find the article but there is someone who is working on a process to freeze them, shred them when frozen so they don't combust, ie the chemical reaction is all but inert, then separating the stuff and doing what they need to. Apparantly they got way past the price barrier. I wish I remember where I seen that.
Aaron
-
Cas, not to hijack the thread but how are you snapping belts like that? Something has got to be wrong for that to keep happening?
Hate seeing someone with a bike they are afraid to drive when the solution may be simple.
Aaron
It snaps every time anyone else adjusts it :(
Cas :)