The crew at Zero Motorcycles has been hard at work. From the 2010 to 2011 model year, Zero largely engineered new electric motorcycles under its existing designs, creating essentially all-new machines that resembled their predecessors. In 2012, they’ve done it again, designing new machines that are vastly more capable than last year’s, although superficially, they are somewhat the same.
The S and DS models are probably the most changed, receiving new, brushless PMAC (permanent magnet alternating current) motors to replace the brushed motors of previous years, along with battery packs of dramatically increased capacity. With either the standard 6- or optional 9-kWh battery pack of lithium-polymer cells replacing the 4.2-kWh cell pack of the past—combined with much-increased efficiency from the new motor and controller, and the addition of regenerative braking—range has increased by almost a factor of 3.
On the same suburban driving cycle, last year’s bike squeaked out just 42 miles on a charge; the new machines with the optional pack will do about 114 miles. But just as significantly, performance also has increased, with maximum torque delivered to the rear wheel (and thus acceleration) increased by almost 50 percent; top speed has jumped roughly 20 mph from the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties. This is something you can feel every time you twist the throttle.
Similarly, performance of the X and MX dirt models has dramatically increased. The nominal energy capacity of the bikes’ battery pack has gone up by roughly 50 percent, to 3 kWh, which, with efficiency improvements, has allowed almost a doubling of available riding time from 20 minutes to 40 minutes on a motocross track. A new controller has increased maximum amperage from about 300 to 400 amps, effectively a power increase of 30 percent. The new MX model accelerates hard enough to skim the front wheel at will and, according to Zero VP of Engineering Abe Askenazi, offers superior performance to the works Zero electric racer that ran away with the Las Vegas/Geico electric MX race in May of 2011.
But perhaps more important than the range and acceleration improvements are enhancements to appearance. The original Zero machines were geeky-looking in the extreme, with bulky white battery boxes their most prominent styling element. The new machines have blacked-out boxes along with black-anodized frames that disguise their non-internal-combustion components, and they feature sexier headlights and bodywork, too. The change is significant enough to draw compliments, not exactly an achievement of previous Zero industrial design.
The new bikes will be available in early 2012, following Zero’s tradition of shipping what they announce—which is almost an exception to the rule in the frothy world of electric motorcycles.
