Zero Motorcycles is putting on a 24 hour endurance race for electric off road motorcycles. The Zero Motorcycles’ 24 Hours of Electricross will take place on the weekend of April 4th-5th at the 408MX Motocross Track in San Jose, California. They are looking to attract some attention to the idea that electric motorcycles are fully capable machines right now.
Teams running Zero X motorcycles will be provided with extra battery packs and fast chargers and there will be facilities for all competitors to charge multiple packs at once.
This should be an interesting event which will give everyone an idea of how long a battery pack actually lasts under racing conditions, how long it takes for a pit stop/battery swap and how the bikes hold up over 24 hours.
Press release:
Zero Motorcycles will make history again the weekend of April 4-5, when they host the Zero Motorcycles’ 24 Hours of Electricross. The event will be the first international endurance competition for off-road all-electric vehicles and is a landmark moment in the electric vehicle industry. Teams from across the United States and around the world have signed on to be a part of making history and for a chance to be included in the Guinness World Records.
“This event is pulling together an incredibly diverse group of people from around the world. Everyone from lifelong motorcyclists to environmentally-conscience trend setters are fielding teams. Some are traveling thousands of miles at their own expense for this opportunity to make motorcycle history,†said Neal Saiki, inventor and founder, Zero Motorcycles.
Created by company founder, entrepreneur and former NASA engineer Neal Saiki, the Zero Motorcycles’ 24 Hours of Electricross will take place in the heart of the Silicon Valley at the 408MX Motocross Track in San Jose, California. Given the grueling nature of this 24-hour endurance race, the limits of competitor’s skills and their electric vehicles will be tested as they battle it out for a chance at setting a Guinness World Record. The event is designed to spark competitive innovation in electric vehicles everywhere. Zero Motorcycles is the next step in motorcycle evolution and represents the ultimate electric motorcycle technology. Unencumbered by conventional thinking about how they design, manufacture, and sell high performance electric motorcycles, they are on a mission to turn heads and revolutionize their industry by combining the best aspects of a traditional motorcycle, with today’s most advanced technology. The result is an electric motorcycle line that’s insanely fast, and environmentally friendly.
Link: Zero Motorcycles
Ian says
Oooo. Want.
It’ll be interesting to see how they hold up – I fully expect drive problems, rather than battery, as I’ll bet that little motor gets quite toasty…
taxman says
i’m glad electric motors are getting more attention. this just helps the dream of seeing electric bikes for sale in dealerships right next to the gas bikes become a closer reality.
Kirill says
it’s a good idea to swap batteries at the charge station.
if the battery format would be standardized for motorcycles and gas stations or even cvs/radioshack will have a battery u can just swap (may be using a deposit for the battery itself), then electric powered vehicles would start taking over. but such operatioon is only possible in densely populated areas and only for large companies such as GM.
does anyone know if there is smtn like that in japan. they use electric carrs, do they just charge them?
james bowman says
I think it looks very interesting and racing is a good way to win people over and gain fans of electric. I love videos of the electric drag bike killacycle and would like to see other options on the table other than petroleum. Competition is always good for the consumer. I wish they would televise this stuff on speed channel.
Schneegz says
“it’s a good idea to swap batteries at the charge station.”‘ ~ Kirill 03.25.09 at 10:44 am
It sure is. If we could do something like that for the general market the issue of switching out old, worn out battery packs at great cost to the consumer would be solved. The gas (charge?) station could simply turn battery packs into the manufacturer after a specified number of uses to be refurbished.
Heck, I bet companies would spring up whose entire business would be refurbishing, or salvaging, battery packs and their components.
Matt Fisher says
All good points regarding the battery swaps, that’s very important from an on-road perspective.
The best part about electric bikes off road will be the noise, or lack thereof. While the 4-strokes have done significant riding area damage with their noise, maybe no-noise will enable us to get back the land, and then some.
todd says
I’ll be at the races wearing my Kneeslider shirt. Maybe I’ll remember to take some video with sound so we can all hear.
-todd
Matt Wiebe says
Zero’s 24-hour race, and similar events is just what is needed to answer consumer questions and push engineers. Zero is supplying charged battery packs for its riders, but as a few posters above note, a standardized battery pack would make re-fueling easy across platforms. And just how fast a pack can be charged was also raised.
I attended the Light Electric Vehicle conference in Taipei, Taiwan a few weeks ago (www.levconference.org) and was amazed at how much of this technology is available.
Coulomb Technologies (www.coulombtech.com), close to San Jose in Campbell, CA–is replacing some parking meters in San Francisco with electric fueling stations, which can charge a Vectrix e-scooter in 3.5 hours, enough to have it fully charged by lunch. It is looking to reduce that time.
HiTech Energy was pushing a standardized battery proposal for e-scooters called “Juiceâ€. They were showing Juice battery kiosks where you drop off a low battery pack, swipe a credit car and slide out a charged pack and away you go.
Japan R&D, the skunk works for Japanese industry, was showing a 2kWh battery pack they could charge in 5 (95% charge) to 15 minutes (100% charge).
Racing like Zero’s 24-hour drives development, but nothing pushes the issue like Government stimulus. Taiwan wants 160,000 new electric scooters on its roads by 2012. For e-scooters that meet its performance standard–climbing, top-speed and battery range–manufacturers and consumers get government checks to encourage the program.
This is why the folks came to Taiwan to show their wares.
Matt
Doug says
I have riden the Zero X and I feel like it is a great step towards electric motorcycles in general. The quiet factor is awesome, you can ride trails anywhere, even in the city. This bike was geared down for more torque and lower high speed. Good power but still not enough for me. The run time is not long enough yet for the woods riding I like to do.
People think you are on a mtn. bike, so safety around pedestrians may become an issue. It handles well but the forks weren’t up to snuff. It felt out of balance; forks too soft, rear too stiff. It may have just been the set-up but the headset was very loose and the throttle had substantial delay even in the high power/high performance mode. I had to get on the throttle well before loading the suspension when rolling into little jump ramps to so it would accelerate off the lip.
High quality of construction but an interesting mix of stout design with questionably light componentry.
They have a little ways to go before I would spend $8-9K on one. In a nut shell it is the coolest pit-bike one could ever get. I am anxiously watching the development so we can all ride electric bikes!
Kenny says
Swapping old battery packs for freshly charged ones in the same manner as butane canisters for gas bbq’s is a great idea and solves so many problems in one fell swoop.
We already have a distribution network for motor vehicle fuels, adding electric to the list won’t tax anyones imagination. It negates the long charge up time for batteries and many other nuisances.
The only problem is standardising a battery. What should the battery be
A battery that would power a litre bike equivalent would probably be overkill for a scooter and would the standardised battery cover cars as well?
GenWaylaid says
Battery swapping is just about necessary for racing, since pit stops have to be as quick as possible, but it may not be the preferred approach for road EVs. Batteries aren’t a consumable substance like gasoline, so a sense of ownership can develop around them. With a swap system, you can never be sure you’re getting a unit that hasn’t been abused.
Charging batteries overnight at home is almost always acceptable, so the only time you’d really need to swap is on a long ride or road trip. Even then it might make more sense to fast-charge the battery while taking a half-hour break instead of swapping the whole pack for one with an unknown history. A touring-sized pack (10 to 20 kWh) would have to be broken into several sections to be removable by hand anyway. Car-sized packs (50 to 100 kWh) would need special forklifts.
I expect we’ll continue to see swappable batteries in electric racing for some time. There’s no real need to standardize if your pack will fit any of the bikes on your team, but the racing series might set a standard for fairness/safety reasons. Race replica bikes might come with “swappable” packs that only ever get changed on track day, but don’t expect a standard there, either. Why would the manufacturer standardize the battery and miss an opportunity to sell you an extra pack?
WRXr says
A possible downside to swapping battery is it requires standardization on a single battery type. This puts a large amount of design control in the hands of the battery manufacturer rather than with the car/bike maker. Meaning, bikes and cars would have to be designed around a standard battery, rather than to the bike manufacturer’s specificatons. So some large factor of differentiation could be lost.
Nonetheless, the company A Better Place is trying the swap approach.
JimmyR says
Maybe battery design will become similar to tyre design now. Sure there are standards and specific types – maybe racing will become a “two battery maker” event, like tyres have been in F1. I agree that some kind of ownership issues would arise from a battery swap station. But I do suspect that at least some degree of standardisation will happen – it just makes economic sense.
I am excited about reduced charging times – both my cameras and my phone take a lot less time to recharge than they did just 5 years ago. And they last longer.
One last thing – maybe electric bikes would need some kind of sound generator to be noticed? How cool to have a sampled V-twin sound coming from your scoot! Less necessary with cars I would imagine, seeing as most noise from cars comes from tyres, not engines.
toph says
The thing that bugged me about battery swapping is how would a leftover charge on the battery be handled? What I’m getting at is, say I’m about to embark on a trip from one city to another that are 150 miles apart, I look down to the dash and notice that the battery is at 19% and would only get me 45 miles. I go to get the battery swapped out with a residual charge left on it. Would I get a refund? Wouldn’t it be highly probable that a less-than-nice battery swap station could dispute the remaining charge? (e.g. I say: “It says the battery had 19% left” They say: “Our machine says 2%, you’re lucky you made it here.”) They know you HAVE to leave with a battery, you would have no obvious option.
Also: Being poor, my battery is almost dead, would I be able to collect the change in my couch to put $2.37 of charge on the battery?
BigAl says
@Kirill:
> does anyone know if there is smtn like that in japan. they use electric carrs, do they just charge them?
Never seen anything electric but Toyota Hybrids here. Where does your information come from?
Schneegz says
In order for a standardized battery pack to work in multiple vehicle types, the battery would have to be made in sections. A scooter may take only one section. A motorcycle may take four. A car might take twelve. The size of each section would have to be standardized, and so would the receiver, but the manufacturer could choose to arrange the sections in any conceivable permutation, even spreading sections throughout the vehicle, for better packaging and weight distribution. It doesn’t have to be a one-size-fits-all battery.
Here’s a thought: would a sectional, standardized battery pack lead to the return of the service station (as opposed to the self-service station)?
james bowman says
Schneegz
I was already thinking of a similar aproach not standerdized batteries but rather modules that could easily be configured for the application. This method could be very simple if implimented with some for thought and of course battery standards could be used as well like maybe someone doing mostly local driving could use a less efficient battery at a slightly reduced cost not much different between regular and premium. As far as cars go I think maybe a small tow behind tank and generator could be used on long trips but that is another solution. Again I think we are seeing the future to some degree if the benefits warrent it.
kirill says
@bugal
my friend was telling me about all electric car that has short range. it made no sound. i couldn’t find anything on-line to confirm. it seemed possible so i didnt check. there were a number of e-cars at autoshows and US even had ev1
clharding says
why can’t they install an alternator, regulator, generator combo.? so it could recharge itself as it rolls along. it would be like a car making its own gas!!!