ZeroMotorcyclesAnnounces240%Growth 1stQuarter2012-BlamesLuke

[gasfreeearth]

Cheers again Luke! Awesome bike! Have almost 6,000 miles in just about 2 months. Although I have built many electric motorcycles and bikes, my decision was based on the amazing range and lifecycle of the batteries in a useable "plug in and play " package with an incredible battery management system that I couldn't ever build on my own for the amount I paid for the Zero. Truly the first bike I think even DIY'ers should get versus building their own.

However, lugging around an extra 3kw from the zf6 and 3 extra delta Q's and almost always a passenger and a bunch of luggage and junk has made my bike almost 300 lbs heavier and slower than the average zippy ZF6 out there. With the extreme extra weight, the bike could definitely handle having the amp restriction removed from 0-30 mph. I'm sure it was designed as a safety feature for newbies and people not used to instant torque to prevent wheelieing out of control, but on a case by case basis I got beat by a 3 cyl geo metro the other day when the light turned green. Is there a performance improvement thread started yet? I just ordered a 25 tooth sprocket to replace the 28 tooth one with, but I know that will be minimal.

What I desperately need is a firmware upgrade we can load to remove the 0-30 restriction. Or if not available yet, can we hot wire an override button that can directly send the throttle signal to the sevcon to give max amps to the motor? Have all Zero's been restricted or just the 2012 model? It's obvious the power is there as around 30 mph it takes off like a freakin rocket ship! All in all I give a stock ZF6 or ZF9 the highest recommendatio to anyone!

[fractal]

how far are we from equalling gas bikes in terms of range and the speed of charge? when will charging a pack on a zero or other electric motorcycle will take the same time as filling up a gas tank? is this light years away or closer than we think?

[liveforphysics]

how far are we from equalling gas bikes in terms of range and the speed of charge? when will charging a pack on a zero or other electric motorcycle will take the same time as filling up a gas tank? is this light years away or closer than we think?

A handful of battery options all ready exist that would support 15minute full-empty to full-charged capability.

However, to do this say a 5kWhr battery, you need a 20kW charger, and to do it on a 10kWhr battery you need a 40kW charger...

Carrying that on-board the motorcycle as a charger with AC input would be virtually impossible, as the charger would be at least 100lbs minimum, and occupy as much space as the current battery.

Which leaves you with DC-fast charging (how all EV chargers should be). With a level 3 DC fast charger (CHAdeMO), you're limited to 125amps charge current, so on a 100Ah battery you would still be spending ~45minutes to finish a charge from full empty.

So, I don't see EV's matching the 5-10minute fill-up time of a gas vehicle anytime in the immediate future, but as DC fast charge infrastructure grows, you're going to see the times to recharge EV's get much closer to the time to refuel a gasoline tank. One day it will be faster to charge EV's than to fuel a gasoline car. I expect we are at least >5 years off from that day happening though, and the big hold-up is more on the side of the chargers than the vehicles.

[Ypedal]

so .. use the forklift to zip a quick charge to the ebike.. check.