When it comes to electric vehicles, Tesla and other auto makers are getting all the love. But there are a handful of other EV manufacturers that have been notching their own impressive performance gains.
They’re just doing it with half the wheels.
While Nissan dukes it out with Honda, Fiat, Chevy and Smart over how-low-can-you-go EV lease prices, Zero Motorcycles, in Scotts Valley, has been battling with Brammo, from Ashland, Ore., to make the fastest, funnest, most eco-friendly electric motorcycle for riders who don’t see price as an obstacle. The Zero starts at $13,995, the Brammo at $16,995, before applying an $800 federal tax credit and $900 California clean vehicle rebate.
Both plug-in sport bikes can reach speeds of about 100 mph and travel more than 100 miles on a single charge in city driving, achieving a fuel economy rating far superior to all-electric cars: 400-plus mpg equivalent. Yet each machine represents a radically different aesthetic and strategy. Brammo is pursuing the motorcycle enthusiast with a Ducati Monster lookalike and Italian component trimmings, while Zero is chasing the everyman buyer who’s tired of paying for gas.
Which one is the better bike? It depends on the rider’s priorities.
2013 ZERO S
Unless you restrict your driving to 4 a.m. in Southern California, you’re going to hit traffic. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t able to limit our driving to the wee hours, so we get stuck, which is why my preferred mode of transportation whenever I need to get somewhere quickly is a motorcycle.
I put 900 miles on the Zero S in the six weeks the manufacturer let me keep it, and that was while I test drove other cars and bikes weekly. The reason is simple: the Zero S is one of the easiest motorcycles I’ve ever ridden.
Being all electric and direct drive, there’s no clutch or gears. I just twisted the grip to engage its instant, and constant, torque and was practically teleported into moving traffic. Without the need to pull a clutch or shift gears, the acceleration was uninterrupted, blazing fast – and whisper quiet. The only indication of my increasing velocity was the whir of the motor and a belt drive delivering power to the rear wheel, the pitch of which increases with speed.
I’ve been testing Zero’s motorcycles annually since the company released its first model in 2008, and the 2013 is a quantum leap forward by almost any measure. In five years, the company has gone from a range of 35 miles and a top speed of 60 mph to a range of 137 with a top speed of 95 mph – which should feel ample to most riders who don’t regularly pop wheelies.
My travels are mostly high speed and via freeway, i.e. 70-plus mph, so my average range was consistently 80 miles per charge. City driving at lower speeds would enable longer distances. The bike presents its estimated range similarly to most gas-powered cars and many motorcycles: With a stack of 12 bars that disappear as riders run through the bike’s 11.4-kilowatt-hours worth of lithium ion battery charge. A Zero app can be downloaded to a smartphone to communicate with the bike in real time. A rubber mount for the phone sits fore and left of the dashboard and provides estimated range in miles as well as distance, but even without it, the stock bar system was effective.
With three bars of charge remaining, they begin to flash. I ran the bike entirely out of bars on two occasions – 3 miles beyond supposed zero – and still made it home without a New York Times-style Tesla tow.
Part of the reason I was able to do so is because Zero has built about 15 miles of travel into its three-bars-left state of charge. The S also has two drive modes that are selected with a toggle switch near the dash. An eco mode restricts its power to extend range but still feels lickety-split. Sport mode gives the bike unbridled acceleration. The 2013 is such a technological improvement over the 2012 that Eco on this year’s S is faster than Sport on the outgoing model.
Recharging the Zero is fairly slow and takes about eight hours to recharge from empty whether riders use a 110- or 220-volt (Level 2) charger. The charge cord, which looks like a garden-variety extension cord, stows in a cylindrical hole in the bike’s frame.
What’s nice about an electric motorcycle versus an electric car like my daily driver, the Nissan Leaf, is that it’s easier to maneuver to a 110 outlet tucked away in the corner of a parking lot or at the back of a building.
Lightweight, narrow and nimble, the Zero S was the vehicle I grabbed whenever I needed to slice and dice through the obstacle course of cars and trucks that define California’s roadways. With a stubby, 55.6-inch wheelbase and a 31.3-inch saddle that’s narrow as well as low, I felt completely in control at all times, including splitting lanes. It is so well balanced and feather light feeling, in fact, that it tricked me into thinking I might be able to bench press the thing when parked. Alas, it does weigh 382 pounds.
The bike is equipped with a regenerative deceleration system similar to Tesla’s. Rather than regenerative brakes, power is fed back to the battery whenever the rider rolls off the throttle. Using the Zero app can increase the amount of resistance on the throttle when it’s rolled off to double the amount of power fed back to the battery and feel more like the engine braking of a traditional, gas-powered bike.
For 2013, Zero has upgraded its suspension to be more responsive, and the overall quality of components is improved from prior model years, as is the style. Still, I don’t love the look of the S. An electric powertrain just isn’t as visually sexy as an engine. While the batteries are packaged in a manner that makes them less ugly than prior Zero models, they remain housed in a black box and tucked into a color-matched black aluminum frame to make them less obvious. With no need for a gas tank, the “tank” area is now equipped with an aesthetically questionable zipper case that looks like a built-in fanny pack and is large enough to hold a lunch but not a full-face helmet.
For 2013, the Zero S excels at function. For 2014, I hope Zero can match its supreme functionality with an equally appealing form.
2013 BRAMMO EMPULSE R
For a bike with similar performance figures, the Brammo Empulse R takes an entirely different tack than the Zero S. With a pounce-like posture and architecture that transforms its batteries into an artistic display of individual cells offset with chrome, the Empulse is more appealingly aggressive – at least in style.
One look at its Monster profile, and it’s clear that Brammo is pursuing an enthusiast market. That Italian performance theme extends to its components, which include adjustable Marzocchi forks out front, semi-adjustable Sachs shocks in the rear, Brembo brakes and Marchesini wheels.
Curiously, the Empulse R is outfitted with an integrated electric transmission that gives the bike six gears and allows riders who enjoy performing burnouts and wheelies to pull the clutch and rev the motor, for quicker starts and pull-ups – minus the sound.
Think Marcel Marceau as stunt biker, and you get the gist.
For riders who’d rather abstain from such look-at-me antics, the gearbox is, at best, unnecessary, and, at worst, somewhat aggravating. It depends on one’s perspective and riding style, but the single speed that comes courtesy of an all-electric, direct-drive powertrain is a positive attribute that negates the need for a clutch, the activity of shifting and any slow downs caused from the clutch-and-shift of a traditional gas bike.
Being all electric, the Empulse R lacks any sound other than a slight whir and offers almost no aural clues or vibration, as there would be on a gas-powered bike, to indicate it’s time to upshift – just a flashing light on the dash that’s easy not to notice, especially when it’s time to upshift from first to second gear.
Brammo has taken an opposite approach from Zero for recharging, as well. Brammo presumes riders will recharge with a 220-volt, or Level 2, charger – both at home and in the world at large. The Empulse is outfitted with a J1772 charging port, similar to most electric cars. The port is in the exact same place as the gas cap on a traditional motorcycle and is built in to the bike’s “tank,” which is really just a shell because the bike is electric. The J1772 is a great system for riders with defined routes who have access to a Level 2 charger at their destinations. If not, they’ll need to lug the charging brick with them.
Contact the writer: scarpenter@ocregister.com
