COSTCO is about to sale the Zero Motorcycle !!

[Doctorbass]

I got that new from someone that want to stay anonymous from now.

That might ne interesting!

COSTCO + ZERO

DOc

[HumboldtRc]

I have a feeling it is someone whos name starts with an L...

[Lock]

Doc
Can ya tell us, is this USA-only or Canada (La Belle Provence?) too?

LoCk

[liveforphysics]

This is news to me, but I would love it to be true!

[Doctorbass]

Doc
Can ya tell us, is this USA-only or Canada (La Belle Provence?) too?

LoCk

The person why said that news to me live in Canada so i guess it's Canada from now.. but i guess it's the same for the US

Doc

[EBJ]

Does anyone think this might actually be a bad thing? (image-wise)

I ask b/c people don't go to Costco for vehicles, and I imagine a vehicle being sold there (especially an electric one) would come off as a "toy".
perhaps giving electric-motorcycles a bad rep. I just feel electric motorcycles would be best sold at motorcycle dealerships. That way they would hopefully be taken seriously.

[Lock]

I would hope the Zero bikes have better quality and reliability built in than the ebikes the big box stores have been selling so far (with resulting bad experiences for seller and buyer), and their volume buying could drive EMB cost down to commodity pricing. They're just big power tools. Many in the motorbike community have been slow to adopt EMBs, lots of vocal anti EMB folks in the MB community. Maybe Costco could FORCE the dealerships to wake up to the opportunity (maintenance and repairs, clothing etc.) Gotta happen sooner or later.
Lock

[Green Machine]

Well not to be pessimistic because this is a way different type of machine...

But remember selling at costco was the thing that really killed the zappy scooter and zap the company.

To sale at costco you have to be prepared to deal with massive returns.

That doesnt apply i guess to full sized motorcycles which is like selling a car....no returns.

[liveforphysics]

I saw that Kawasaki is partnering to sell motorcycles at Costco. Maybe Costco is branching out into vehicles.

[Arlo1]

I got that new from someone that want to stay anonymous from now.

That might ne interesting!

COSTCO + ZERO

DOc

Frock yeah! IM going to go do a bunch of dyno runs to celebrate

[El_Steak]

cool, been considering getting an electric motorcycle for a while. I prefer the Brammo Empulse for about the same price with better performance and arguably better looks. Its only available for "pre-order" however while the zero is available right now.

I wonder how this is going to work for the licence registration. In Quebec, the price of registration is based on motor displacement and bike category. The price differences are huge: registration for a small 125cc is about 250$ while a sports bike over 400cc is almost 1500$ ! No mention of electric bikes on their website.

[bigmoose]

This would be interesting! Wonder what the price would be, then I wonder if Costco will sell replacement batteries, and at what price?

[auraslip]

The Zero XU is being sold with an extra battery as an option http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/750/9359/ ... pdate.aspx

However you have to buy the charger too. So it comes out to $3k of a 2kwh pack and charger. Maybe Costco will be a little bit more lax? $2k for for a top of the line 2kwh battery MAY be worth it. Especially if I can go down to my local costco to get it

[Doctorbass]

The Zero XU is being sold with an extra battery as an option http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/750/9359/ ... pdate.aspx

However you have to buy the charger too. So it comes out to $3k of a 2kwh pack and charger. Maybe Costco will be a little bit more lax? $2k for for a top of the line 2kwh battery MAY be worth it. Especially if I can go down to my local costco to get it

Here is Quebec, we will have a REBATE ( not tax credit) of 5000$ for a 100% electric vehicule with at least 4kWh battery.. making the original zero perfect for that..

Except that at the last minute they decided to not categorize the zero in a vehicule category...

otherwise the zero would cost like 3000$

Doc

[Green Machine]

What happens in the past when costco sold ev's (zappys)...which is good example of the model that can happen.

Costco sells zappy for cheap, in fact cheaper than the wholesale cost to most dealers.

Zappy Dealers are livid.

Costco and zappy's relationship falls apart after too many returns.

Costco stops selling zappys.

Dealers stop selling zappys.

Zappy dies.

Zappy wennt from hot trendy product to completely dead within one year of offering for sale at costco.

That is why low low pricing is not cut out for every product. EV's especially are something more suitable to dealer sales because who is going to service them when they break? Knowledgable sales staff is needed to sale EV.

[kaysellters]

Same thing happened with WaveCrest when they made a deal to sell some TidalForce models at Costco and they inevitably screwed the dealer network --

[Doctorbass]

INfo about Costco and Zero parthenership OFFICIALLY RELEASED


http://www.costco.ca/service/featurepage.aspx?productno=10354718&sl=true&forcelang=en-CA&cm_re=1-_-SmallFence-_-Motorcycles


Doc

[psomero]

Costco is not directly selling the bikes. I believe they'll have some on display in the stores (dunno if there's test rides on-site or not), but in the end, you have to go to a regular Zero dealer in order to buy one at a special Costco member discounted price.

The deal is only in Canada for now.

[Alan B]

We have bought vehicles from Costco. Of course then GM went downhill, but it didn't have to do with Costco. What happens is you actually deal with a fleet dealer, so it is still through a dealer at a good price point. Works out fine.