Electric motorbikes transformative

California electric bikemaker Zero Motorcycles chief executive officer Sam Paschel has been riding conventional motorbikes most of his life.

Before he took up the job in February he went for a ride on a Zero bike.

“So I hopped on my motorcycle – it’s a gas bike – and drove 50 miles to Provo, Utah, from Park City to test-drive a Zero. I loved the motorcycle I was riding, had it for a long time and put a lot of miles on it – and I would have traded it on the spot for the Zero that I test-drove,” Paschel tells Electrek.

Riding a motorcycle engages all five senses – and on an electric bike your experience is fundamentally different across three of those senses, he says. Some annoyances like the noise and smells that he didn’t realise were getting in the way of a pure ride experience were stripped away. All the things he never knew he disliked about riding a motorcycle had been eliminated, which was the revelatory moment that convinced him of the company’s – and the market’s – promise.

He took over at the 150-person company a few months after Zero unveiled its 2017 lineup. It has six models, with an emphasis on giving riders more power, versatility and options. Improvements were extended across all models. Zero also updated its mobile app, allowing for over-the-air software updates for the bikes.

The company has added a new five-year unlimited mileage battery warranty, in addition to seeing an expanded dealer network and increased manufacturing capacity.

“To believe in the future of this business, you have to believe fundamentally in four things,” Paschel says. “That EVs will continue to grow and be a more significant part of transportation, globally. Number two, you have to believe that motorcycles will be a part of that movement, especially as infrastructure continues to grow and change. Number three, you have to understand that battery chemistry for lithium ion cells is improving at roughly 8% a year.”

Zero’s Scotts Valley facility can make up to 20 bikes daily, and the company is in 30 markets globally.