Zero electric bikes spark up

Californian company Zero Motorcycles claims its 2012 line-up is "game changing". New features include range of up to 183km, a top speed of 114km/h and battery life of almost 500,000km.

This is a quantum leap from the previous models available in Australia with range of 80km and a top speed of 110km/h. Zero Motorcycles Australia director Phil Wilkinson says the bikes are scheduled for delivery in the US in February.

The current model line-up is the S street bike and DS dual sport, both at $12,995, and the MX Sport ($10,000) and MX Extreme ($11,000) off-road bikes. Wilkinson says the S and DS will come as a ZF6 model with a six kilowatt-hours output and a ZF9 variant with 9kW-h.

He says the ZF6 will be cheaper while the ZF9 may be up to $1000 more. The MX models remain around 4kWh but with almost double the battery capacity. The major improvement in range capability comes from adding regenerative braking which harnesses kinetic energy to recharge the battery.

Zero also claims the powertrain does not require any routine maintenance, except for the low-noise, low-maintenance belt drive. Wilkinson says the biggest hurdle has been battery life.

"About 90 per cent of our customers ask what the replacement battery costs," he says. "With the new model you get 500,000km out of it, so you wouldn't ever need to change the battery."

The bikes can be charged from completely flat on a standard domestic 240V/10amp mains output in four hours while a second charger will halve that time. They can also be plugged into the new quick-charging stations available in some cities.

Zero Motorcycles Australia began selling non-registrable off-road bikes in 2009 and added the street-legal S and DS in November 2010. Wilkinson says they have sold out of their 40-bike shipment.

"They're not huge numbers at the moment. It's a very challenging market," he says. "Now that the range they are quoting is seriously usable and the bikes have that higher speed so you can ride on the freeway with confidence, people will start to take them up. I would think we could double, or even triple sales."

Wilkinson says the company is expanding its dealer network across Australia. Dealers are Action Motorcycles in Sydney, Graeme Boyd's Suzuki in Newcastle, Jeffery Motorcycles in Melbourne and Bill's Motorcycles in Adelaide, with dealers for Brisbane and Perth yet to be announced.

The new models use Z-Force power pack technology with cell monitoring to improve battery life, provide more power and improve acceleration. The permanent magnet brushless DC electric motor uses 1/10th the steel and half the copper of competing DC motors and requires no maintenance.

Zero Motorcycles uses second-generation lithium-ion cells to prevent fire and their power packs feature a monitoring system with active rebalancing that constantly tracks the voltage and temperature of each cell to prevent overheating.