Zero S Electric Motorcycle

[cynic]

Yes, this bike is obviously not in Singapore yet but if someone were to bring it in, would you want one?

 

  Quote

Zero Takes Electric Motorcycles to the Street

 

http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2009/04/07/zero_s_01.jpg

 

The dust kicked up by the 24 Hours of Electricross has barely settled and Zero Motorcycles is back with a street-legal electric motorcycle it will have in driveways later this month.

 

The Zero S builds upon the the technology underpinning the Zero X dirt bike by doubling the size of the battery to deliver 60 miles of electric commuting and corner-carving. The Santa Cruz startup promises a top speed of 60 mph and a zero-to-60 time of about 5 seconds from a highway-legal bike that weighs just 225 pounds.

 

http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2009/04/07/zero_s_02.jpg

 

"Our goal from the beginning was to engineer a high-performance electric urban street motorcycle that would change the face of the industry," founder Neal Saikai said. "The Zero S is a high-performance motorcycle that also happens to be fully electric and green."

 

 

Zero wants to position itself as a leader in the budding electric motorcycle market, and it faces mounting competition from small companies like Brammo, startups like Mission Motors and big players like KTM. It's betting the supermoto-style Zero S will keep it out front.

 

http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2009/04/07/zero_s_03.jpg

 

The Zero X proved its mettle last weekend during an unprecedented 24-hour endurance race where 10 teams log as many as 507 miles flogging the bikes around a track in San Jose. But while the Zero X is strictly an off-road machine, the S is designed for city streets and the occasional back-road run.

 

The brushed permanent magnet motor produces 31 horsepower and the bike weighs 225 pounds, making the Zero S a little less powerful - but 96 pounds lighter - than a Suzuki DR-Z400SM. With 62.5 foot-pounds of torque on tap, the Zero S has significantly more grunt than, say, the KTM 690 SMC.

 

http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2009/04/07/zero_s_04.jpg

 

Juice comes from a 4 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery that weighs 80 pounds and charges in less than four hours when plugged into a 110 volt outlet. Zero predicts the battery will last five or six years with normal use. No word on the replacement cost, but an extra pack for the Zero X - which uses a 2 kilowatt-hour pack - costs $3,000.

 

Power flows directly to the back wheel - no transmission - and the bike offers 9 inches of suspension travel up front and 8 at the rear. Zero wouldn't offer any details on who's producing the suspension or brake components.

 

The first hundred or so bikes will be built at Zero's factory near Santa Cruz, and production manager Gabriel DeVault tells us the first of them will roll out by the end of the month.

 

"We're starting domestic production right now," he said. "We'll have people riding these inside of the month."

 

Production will ramp up as Zero shifts frame production to Taiwan. Rolling chassis will come back to Santa Cruz for final assembly before being shipped to buyers, DeVault said.

 

"We want to have these bikes on the road this summer," he said.

 

The Zero S will cost $9,950 and qualifies for a 10 percent federal tax credit. DeVault says the company has received 100 orders already.

 

Photos and video: Zero Motorcycles

 

from Wired.

[Andre]

If someone bring this bike to Singapore, is worth to consider with current petrol price going rocket high.

[eildafluz]

I did enquire Brammo bikes distributor in HK. They mentioned last they would bring in Spore Q1 2012. Till today no updates from them still. LTA is promoting Green Vehicle Rebate (GVR) Scheme towards Electric Motorcycle. Not sure why still has not taking advantage of it. Maybe the start-up cost not feasible.

[mechwira]

same problem with all electric vehicles.

 

it goes about 100km. to be on the safe side, you'd probably charge every two days. overnight.

 

how to charge? you can't bring the bike up the hdb flat.

 

it says the batt is removable. i assume it has an external charging cable. if this is the case, then you'd have to lug a 36kg battery up your flat every two days to charge overnight.

 

for as long as battery technology does not take a giant leap forward, electric motorcycles and electric cars are not practical, full stop. they cant even invent a battery that makes our smartphones last one week. upsize it to a vehicle use, and you get a battery that is too big and heavy, yet runs out of juice too quickly, and takes too dam long charge. and this is before the fact that we live in hdb flat and we cant directly plug in the vehicles into our houses.

 

the alternative is for every single motorcycle and car lot to have a charging terminal where we pay to plug in. and i mean every single lot, not one or two terminals per carpark. if everybody rides an electric bike, and need to charge overnight every two days, one or two charging terminals in the entire carpark is not going to be enough. and the idea that every individual lot having a charging terminal is just as unlikely as battery technology taking a big leap forward. electric vehicle motors are dead ends.

[smrt]

singapore's green initiatives usually die after a certain period.

 

cng, electric bike/car charging stations in ikea, etc etc.

[LedZeppelin]

One day there must be a better answer to the whole green thing.. Nuclear bike!!! haha

[rara]

of cos. nice

[rara]

hahahahaha

[phif]

Any updates on this?

[TsuchimiRin]

1 thing I think that delays the changing and improvements of certain things of a country is the rejection of change by the higher ups, a lot of them are simply too hard-headed to accept changes.

 

The 2 things that will make electric motorcycle a dream come true easily is the place where electric vehicles can be charged and the security issues involved when your vehicle is the process of charging. I bet there will be idiotic SOB out there who will either tamper with the charging port/charging wires from the vehicles or selfish people who will end up breaking the charging port after use since it is not theirs and they can always find different charging port to the charge their vehicles when the need arises, or....they will self declare a certain charging port belongs to them and will sabotage whoever uses "their" charging port to deter them from ever using that charging port.

 

I sometime feel that such "humans" should be eradicated atomically and the roads will be more at peace for riders and drivers. Pardon me for grumbling.

[rocka]

Time to reignite the thread. Future is almost here. Mah Motors interested or not?

[apogeeXX]

8 years later .... 

mah motor now has the zeroes

[apogeeXX]

if i remember correctly, mah motor has the sr/s and sr/f
around 66k otr
will you consider ?

[adesmond2]

  On 5/16/2025 at 10:44 AM, apogeeXX said:

if i remember correctly, mah motor has the sr/s and sr/f
around 66k otr
will you consider ?

Expand  

No, not on my list, I will want to go Malaysia or Thailand from time to time. imagine I need to charge my motorcycle while I'm in a rush? Not possible.. The max distance for any EV is about 200-300 (max). Not enough to cover until KL.