Are Electric Motorcycles The Future? Zero, Savic – All Electric Show 2024
– Okay, gang. Today we’re bringing you something really different. We’re heading to the Fully Charged Electric Vehicle Show. That’s right. Well, of course, we’re more interested in the motorcycle side of things, and we actually got an invite from Zero Motorcycles, who’s got a demo set up and some stunt shows.
So it should be a good day, and we plan to answer the all-important question: Are electric motorcycles the future? We don’t know. And I guess you don’t know yet, but we’re gonna find out today, and we’re gonna have a look around. So come and enjoy a good day.
We’re gonna take out Marcel, the marketing manager, as well. He’s my partner in crime. And I’ve already started fully charged. I’ve started the day with a Red Bull, and we’re actually traveling in a hybrid vehicle. So, yes, it is all electric today. So enjoy the show,
And we’ll give you all our rundown at the end of the day. Alrighty, here we go. Just arriving at the Fully Charged Show. You fully charged, Marcel? – Always, mate. Electrified. I was thinking about, on the way to the Fully Charged Show, I was thinking of your feature that you did last year on the Moto GP on Phillip Island. – Oh, yep, yep.
– And the feature, you titled the feature, “Roar of the Island.” – Yeah (laughing). – Now, I just can’t- – Well, what would you call it? The Whizz of the Island? – The Whizz of the Island. I just can’t imagine it. The whole feeling and sensation you get when you’re on Phillip Island,
And you just hear the bikes screaming up the track. It’s amazing. It’s what makes the experience. I’m just wondering, what’s that gonna feel like when it’s the opposite? – Well, that’s the different side of things. I mean, electric vehicles obviously are being brought in because they’re gonna be more economical
And all that sort of stuff. And you know what I mean? And fossil fuels and all that sort of stuff won’t be around forever. And so, what gets me is that you can’t then translate that to the racetrack. You know what I mean? – Well, you’ve got guys coming up
With all these speaker systems that are mounted to vehicles and- – Yeah, just to sound like a motorcycle. – To sound like a motorcycle. So, I mean, it’s gonna be interesting. So, I’m looking forward to the show. – Yeah. Well, here we go, mate. We’ll go on in and have a look, eh?
– Yep. – All right, we’re here. Let’s go. – [Marcel] Doesn’t that bike look like that bike from “Dumb and Dumber”? – It does, mate. “Where’d you steal that bike?” (chuckling) – [Marcel] You know you can get 40 miles to the gallon on this hog? – Ring, ring! (chuckling) But then again, that’d be all right.
You could actually fit a body in there. Just put it in the boot, away you go. – [Marcel] Is this electric? – Yes. – [Marcel] What about this? – Yes. – [Marcel] What about this? – Solar powered. – [Marcel] What about this? – Yes. – [Marcel] What about this? – Not sure. How’s your sister? (chuckling) – [Marcel] What about them? – I’m not sure. They don’t look very electric.
– [Marcel] What about all these peoples? Are they electric? – I’m not sure, mate. (laughing). – [Marcel] What about this? – Oh, where did we find Borat? (laughing) – [Tom] But in a few minutes, our riders, Tom Bramich and Lukey Luke are coming out here. Lukey. – Oh, Lukey Luke. Wait ’til you see him ride, mate. – [Tom] While he’s warming up.
World Supersport 300 and races regularly with Australian Supersport Championship. Lukey Luke, former professional stunt rider. – [Pugs] Yeah, I’ve seen this bloke ride, man. Unbelievable. – [Tom] We’ll let him have a bit of a warm-up. – [Pugs] Not on an electric, though. That’s different. – [Tom] Mainly warming up the bike
And warming up the tires same time. Probably not a bad idea. – The good thing about electric though, the power’s like this. (fingers snapping) – It’s instant. – [Pugs] Yeah. So I suppose that’d be pretty good for stunt stuff, wouldn’t it? – [Tom] It’s kind of a dual sport,
But this one’s running road tires, which makes it a bit more like an overpowered motard. – [Pugs] This would be slippery too, hey? Hey? – [Tom] Tom is on our SR/F. That’s our top of the range sport bike. About 110 horsepower, but nearly 200 newton meters.
So probably getting to one of the more- – [Pugs] That’s almost like a child’s bike, don’t you reckon? – [Tom] For today, he’s able to display what the bike’s capable of. And he’s also (indistinct). Come on DJ (indistinct), let’s have some sound. – [Pugs] Let’s have some sound, see? Get it?
The sound comes from the music. – [Marcel] The sound comes from the music. I mean, they look great. The bikes look good, don’t they? – [Pugs] Oh yeah, yeah. – [Tom] And this, we have a couple of riders that are outside, where you can have a ride. A bit bigger than this.
– [Marcel] Pugs, what’s really interesting about all this is you recently reviewed the Kawasaki Z900RS. And in terms of the power, the performance, was 98 newton meters of torque. And did you hear just what Tom just said, he said it’s 200. – [Pugs] Yeah. – [Marcel] In comparison.
– [Pugs] And as you were saying, that power delivery’s instant too. You know what I mean? – [Tom] Battery on the bike is very low in the chassis. How hard is it, Lukey, to do this? – [Pugs] For him, easy. (laughing) – [Lukey] I feel like the bike’s really balanced.
Like you said, the weight’s really low, and you can feel that. Doing something like this makes it a lot easier. – [Tom] I can hear (indistinct) Are you all right, mate? – [Lukey] Yeah, I’m all right. Yeah, the weight’s really low and the throttle is very responsive. – Now, did that have a little wander? Yeah, there you go. – [Pugs] Tom. – Pugs, how are you, mate? – [Pugs] Good, mate, yourself? – Good to see ya. – [Pugs] Good to meet you, mate. – [Tom] Yeah, what’d you reckon? – Brilliant, yeah. – I wish we had asphalt.
It’s the bit that’s kind of blown… Literally it blew Bosch away because in regular traction control, you’re dropping spark and and reducing fuel injectors. – Yep. – And that’s a slow process compared to dropping amperage, which is so instantaneous that the traction control is super smooth. When we had our first ride day,
We had guys who aren’t that experienced at riding laying black trails outta the turns. – Yeah, wow. – Because you can, it’s that confidence inspiring twist of the wrist, spins it up. So when people say, “You have any concerns about the brand?” I go, “You’re gonna do more tires because you can.” – That’s a good thing. – So yeah, it’s good fun. Good fun thing. Absolutely. – Mate, I’ve seen you ride heaps of times. So just tell me, what’s it different doing a few stunts on an electric bike? – Oh no, there’s no stunts happening.
I keep saying to Tom, I’m retired, I’m not Johnny Fun. I’m not coming outta retirement. No, but it does. It has very different characteristics for a motorcycle. The way I’ve explained it to my mates is it’s not really a motorcycle. The similarities are two wheels,
But the feedback it gives you is very different. – Yeah. – Throttle, not bad, not better or worse, just very different. Torque is through the roof. – Yeah, wow. – Top end power, I haven’t got it too top endy, but at the test track it was pulling
Until I had to slow down, so- – Yeah, that’s a good thing. – You know? It’s pretty amazing. – ‘Cause all I’ve done is tested the Livewire. That’s why I’m really looking forward to testing these. – Well, the connections of the throttle on these ones is actually very good.
I tested some electric motorcycles in 2007 and I swore I wouldn’t ever ride another electric motorcycle because it was a very on/off feeling. – Yep. – Obviously, us motorcyclists, we’re all connected to the bike via a throttle. – Yep. – And this is different. This gives you that kind of feedback, that modulation.
So they got the throttle maps right. – Nah, I’m looking forward to riding it, mate. – Yeah, I think you’ll like it. – Well, have a good weekend, brother. – Thank you, man. Appreciate it. – Yeah, good on you. Thanks, mate. Powering the water but Zero- – That’s all we are.
– More or less have all always focused. – Yeah. – Yeah. – And look, we had a guy talking to us about why the Livewire wasn’t a success. I think it’s a success as a bike. – Yeah. – Maybe not commercially. Because if you were to pick an audience
Who are least likely to embrace electric, then- – 100%. – Livewire was that audience. – Wrong market. – Whereas, we’re coming at this as people who wanna ride an electric bike will come to us to ride this. – [Pugs] Already there, exactly. – They’re already there. And look, we already know our market
And that we’ve got guys, customers who legitimately know more about the bikes than we do. – Yeah. – They don’t know more about riding them, but they’ll come in and reel off all the numbers and the regen figures, because it is a bike for that tech market at the moment.
But over time, it becomes more and more ubiquitous. – More accessible, yeah. – As I said, we’ve had guys come out and have a ride who were like, “Oh, electric.” No one gets off it and goes, “Well, that was disappointing.” You know? – Nah.
– We even had some guys at HART, where we did our test come over and the guy normally rides a Africa Twin. – Oh yeah. – And he rode our DSR/X the big… And he goes, “There’s nothing to compare to.” I go, “You ride a Adventure…” He goes, “Nowhere near that.”
– Wow. – “Nowhere near it.” – And that’s coming from someone that has ridden one. – But that’s the one I’d love you to have a demo on. 220 newton meters. – Yeah, wow. – That’s half a Ford Ranger in a motorbike. – In a motorbike. – It’s more than a Rocket 3
And there’s no Harley over 200 newton meters. – Yeah, yeah. – So that’s where that bike sits. – Oh, wow. – As an adventure bike. So, amazing. – No, that’d be awesome. Oh, munchies. Time to get fully charged, hey? So was this cooked with electricity? – [Marcel] It’s zapped. – Zapped.
– [Marcel] That’s how it got cooked. – Yeah, pretty competitive. – Yeah, that’s awesome. – Competitive RRP with ICE, with the bonus of being electric, with the low costs and the low running costs and everything associated. So, we think that’s a great way to get in the market and potentially a LAMS bike. – Yes. Yeah.
– I don’t wanna talk too far outta turn because we haven’t even approached all the legals associated with it. But it’s interesting and I think we may even cause some changes to the way LAMS is looked at, because we can fit in under a lot of kilowatt numbers
While blowing the newton meters out of the water. We probably should have a think about how we approach that. ‘Cause look, it’s something people aren’t used to. You look at the SR/X on our stand, more torque than a Rocket 3. Exactly double the torque of a CBR 1000. – Wow.
– But only 75 kilowatts. – Yeah. Far out. Give us a quick rundown on how many models you’ve actually got. – Okay, so there’s three main lines. – Yep. – The three lines are our street range, the dual sport and the FX or the fun range, what I call the fun range.
Zero doesn’t call it that, but we definitely, in riding it have called it that. – Yep. – So the street range ranges from our SR/F, which is the street fighter. The SR/S being the faired one. The SR, which is just a detuned version of the SR/F. And then the S.
The ’23 and the ’24 models are quite different, but they’re the ones that we’ll look at from a LAMS perspective. – [Pugs] Right. – So, they’re quite… I don’t wanna use the term detuned, but they’re just lower power, lower numbers, to make them more accessible. And the pricing’s also pretty keen.
Look, people have ridden them and some of our riders like Tom Bramich have said that they’re pretty full on. So for someone coming into the market or someone getting off their first LAMS- – It would different. – Something like an SR would be a good choice. – Perfect, yeah.
– Because they’re still really quick off the line as you guys have seen. – Yeah. – And then we go into the dual sport. The main product is the DSR/X. That’s the headline act. – [Pugs] And that’s a big step up for you guys, hey? That’s fantastic. – [Tom] Yeah.
And 300 K’s of city range, pretty great highway range. That’s the one that guy’s been riding around the world, the DSR/X. – [Pugs] Yeah. Right. – There’s a Black Forest Edition for that, which is really just the same bike with boxes and ready set for touring. Then the DSR, that’s the ’23 model.
The ’24s look a bit similar to the one you see on the stand. And then, again, like the street range, lower power, smaller battery, keener pricing, and also probably easier for people to ride. Then the FX. You’ve got the FX, straight up FX, which is a small dual sport.
And you can throw some nobbies on that and go and really have some fun. And then the one you saw Lukey Luke riding, the FXE, which is just a mental motard for the city. Yeah, that to me would be a commuter. 160 K range in the city.
Not huge, but plugs into regular 240 volt with a kettle jug plug. – [Pugs] Oh wow. – So, get to work, plug it in at work, your boss will pay for that. And to fill, even if you charged it at home, a full charge at paying full whack is under $2. – Yeah.
Far out. – For 150 K’s. – Can’t compete with that, yeah. – Who cares? You know? – Exactly. – So, we’ve got something for everyone and- – I was gonna say, you’ve got a big segment of the market stitched up. There’s a variety for everyone. You know what I mean? – Yeah.
And that’s something that was really interesting to me when I came to the project was that we’re not nicheing. – Yep. – They’re bringing in a broad range. The only thing we’re strict on is this is an electric bike company and we’re not a company that has done ICE bikes
And dipping into electric. We come to the market with an electric bike for electric consumers. And I think that’s an important distinction to make. We’re gonna see lots of other brands come into the electric space, and they’ll probably all do a great job, but they’ll come from their perspective.
Whereas when you talk to the guys from Zero, they live and breathe their electric bikes. – And if someone’s thinking of buying an electric motorcycle, Zero is probably the first at the forefront of their mind. – Well, there’s not a lot of companies with more than 10 years experience in making them,
And you’re not getting first gen bikes when you buy a Zero. You’re getting something that’s well developed, two year warranty and a five year on the battery. – Yeah, wow. – Who’s offering anything in motorcycling with five years? And that’s not five year… Oh, the battery lasts five years,
It’s a five year guarantee on the battery. Their feeling is 10 years and beyond for the battery. And that’s their end of life numbers, so like, when it can only reach 80%. – Yeah. – Of its original charge. Still a big number. – Yeah, 100%. Yeah. – So, we think the secondhand market
Can actually do pretty well as well. And we’re gonna support older Zeros with service. Our service teams are really keen to dig in, Peter Stevens Group. But other dealers as they come on board, we’ve got a really important way that we’re gonna support the bikes moving forward.
The great thing about them is they’re so self-diagnostic. And all of the bigger ones already have 4G in them. We can over the air diagnose a lot of problems. When they come in for service, it’s a plugin and it’ll spit out the problems. A lot of AI work, it’s all future stuff.
It’s really exciting. – And that’s the other important thing is the back end of, like some manufacturers, you buy your bike, see ya later, you ride out. – Thanks for coming. – Yeah. Whereas you guys have got that service thing set up, get ready to- – Yeah.
And in terms of the way our models are structured, if someone buys an S, one day we want them on an SR/F. And they’re not gonna step up into a new model unless that bike they rode felt supported, the product quality was there, and all the things they needed
Out of that manufacturer exists, because we want them to feel part of a community. Not just that they bought a bike. So for us, the support levels and the way we’re gonna do it is really, really important. – Well, good on you, mate. I’m really looking forward to it, Tom.
– Cheers, Pugs, it’s pleasure to have you down here. – And I can’t wait to test some of the bikes, mate. Yeah. Look, mate, I picked out a few. I think we’ll start you on the DSR/X, but mate, by the time you’re done, you’re gonna be a bigger expert than I am. – Sounds good. Good on you, Tom. – Cheers. – How you going? Nice to meet you. – Good, thank you. – I’ve seen you before, haven’t I? You used to- – Yes, from Harley. – Oh, well, there you go. – Yep. – So, this is very different. – Yes. Yes, it is. This is our Australian designed C-Series from Savic Motorcycles.
– So, bottom line is, here at the All Electric Australia Show, the big question is that everyone wanna know: Is electric the future? – I think it’s definitely part of the future. There are a lot of benefits to electric with the simplicity of the design, the instant power and acceleration,
But electric won’t be for everyone. So I think it’ll be a really fantastic part of the Australian ecosystem. But I don’t think it’ll be the be all and end all. – So tell us more about this motorcycle. – So, this is our C-Series Alpha. Zero to 100 in three and a half seconds.
– [Pugs] Ooh yeah. – With over 200 newton meters of torque. – [Pugs] Wow. – It has a 16.2 kilowatt hour battery, which equates to about between 230 to 250 kilometers combined, city/highway riding. And between 150 to 180 on the highway. Charge time, you can plug it into
Pretty much any 10 amp wall plug. And that’ll charge overnight or between four to five hours on a level two charger. – And it’s got a bit of carbon fiber here and there on it. – Yes. We’ve designed this one with carbon fiber body work, which has been very popular.
– Yeah, it looks fantastic. – So we’ve got pillion seat. – Oh, look at that. – And then we’ve got pillion pegs that just bolt in underneath, and that comes standard. – Oh, that’s awesome. And what are they like to ride? – [Savic Saleswoman] Really smooth and balanced.
So, even though the battery does play a little bit. – Yeah, it does look quite… – It’s pretty chunky, – Daunting and overwhelming for… – When you sit on it, it does feel a lot smaller than it looks. – Yep. – But we’ve designed it so a lot of the heavier components
Sit underneath the battery. – Right. – ASBK rider, Jed Metcher, has custom designed our suspension with us. – Oh wow. – So our suspension is set up specifically for the weight and the balance of the bike. And we also have reverse, so you can go forward and back under power.
So the only time you really feel the weight of the bike is just getting it off the kickstand. – Righto. And where are these available? – So, we’re taking pre-orders now. – Yep. – We’ve got 220 pre-orders already in the system. – Brilliant.
– So about a years worth of production ready to go. – Yeah, busy, busy, busy, yeah. – 100%. We start first customer deliveries from March. And we’ll be starting test rides, so we’ll be taking our demo fleet around the country. But yeah, you can jump onto our website,
Build your bike through the configurator and for just $100, place your own order. – Wow. Fantastic. – Yeah. – Well, thanks for your time. – Thank you. – No worries. And it could be the future. – Yes, indeed. – Thanks for that. – Australian future. – That’s it. Thank you.
Can you see here, right? Chargefox, that’s like a charging platform around Australia. And when I had the Livewire, it actually was only in its (indistinct). So, now that it’s growing, it’s getting better. But the problem with it, a lot of them are underneath Woolworths and things like that.
– Like concrete car parks and that sort of thing. – And it runs off an app. – Yeah. – So as soon as you lose any reception, you’re standing up in a tree or you’re trying to get reception ’cause your bike goes on, off charge, on, off.
And that’s, you know what I mean? But it is getting better and it is a good system. But of course, now Tesla have opened up the fact that you can use their charging system. – Their chargers as well, yeah. – So that’s where the whole world’s changing.
– And you have a lot of other third parties like Chargefox just dropping their chargers all over Australia. – Yeah, like I said, they did it, they haven’t done a lot of thinking, you know what I mean? It’s getting better. But yeah, just an interesting point, hey? – Yeah.
What are you doing, Pugs? – Just charging, mate. – [Marcel] Why, what’s wrong? – Running outta steam, mate. Such a long day, man. They go all right, hey? I’m feeling all right. – [Marcel] Feel a bit better? – Yeah. – [Marcel] Better than your Red Bull? – Ready to roll, mate.
– [Marcel] All right, let’s do it. Will he charge? (laughing) So, what do you reckon, Pugs? Electric vehicles, especially electric motorcycles. – Well, I mean, it’s contentious, isn’t it? They’re not gonna be for everyone, but it’s been good to get here and see what’s happening
And how the whole electric vehicle world’s moving forward, and had a really positive day to be honest. – [Marcel] It was very positive. How many people do you reckon were here? Plus or minus 5,000? – Oh yeah, about that. Plus or minus. And I don’t know, do you reckon some people,
When they turned up, do you reckon they would’ve been shocked? – [Marcel] I think they would’ve been very shocked at what they saw. Overall though, I’m glad that they did it on Earth. – Yes. Yeah, ’cause it was Earth. 100%, mate. So there you go. There’s the-
– [Marcel] All Electric. – Electric Australia Show. – [Marcel] Yeah. – [Pugs] Mr. Buddy.
In the first VLOG series from Live To Ride, Pugs and Marcel attend the All Electric Australia Show to check out the latest developments in the electric motorcycle industry. They view a wide variety of electric motorcycles and other electric vehicles from brands like Zero Motorcycles, Savic Motorcycles and more.
Key Moments:
(00:22) Electric Motorcycles The Future?
(00:57) All Electric Show 2024
(03:58) Lukey Luke Zero Motorcycle Test
(05:14) Torque Comparison
(06:17) Toms Opinion Zero Motorcycles
(07:00) Lukey Luke Interview
(10:12) Zero Motorcycles Specs & Details
(16:02) Savic Motorcycles
(18:59) Chargefox Opinion
(20:21) Concluding Thoughts
Pugs and Marcel discuss the big question surrounding electric motorcycles – are they the future? What are the benefits compared to petrol powered bikes? They also provide a behind-the-scenes look at how electric motorcycles work and what the riding experience is like, interview Zero and Savic representatives along with Lukey Luke Australia’s Best Motorcycle Stunt Rider.
You will learn about different electric motorcycle models available in Australia and their key specs like range, charge time and performance metrics. Pugs and Marcel also consider the electric vehicle charging infrastructure and how it is evolving.
Overall, this video gives electric motorcycle enthusiasts a comprehensive overview of the exciting developments happening in this emerging sector of the motorcycle industry. It provides insight into both the technology and riding experience of electric motorcycles straight from Australia’s leading motorcycle media company.
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