Zero Motorcycles Unveils 2018 Electric Motorcycle Range

Ten years ago, Zero Motorcycles set off to revolutionise the electric bike market. Today it has grown to become one of the key players in electric bike technology and is known for pushing the boundaries of electric two wheeler mobility; something which they have done with their 2018 bike range. Let’s go over the new bikes first.

The new 2018 range consists of four bikes. They are the Zero S/SR, Zero DS/DSR, Zero FX and Zero FXS. The Zero S/SR is a street naked, the DS/DSR is the scrambler, Zero FX is an off-road bike and the Zero FXS is a supermoto.

The big highlights here are an extended range and six times faster charging, made possible through advancements in battery technology. All new bikes use the Z-Force platform, which uses three batteries across the range. The batteries, codenamed ZF14.4, ZF7.2 and ZF3.6, are lithium-ion units and now carry 10 per cent more energy capacity than before. The ZF14.4 with the optional ZF3.6 battery connected, claims to now offer a range of close to 360km under city riding conditions, the best in the market so far. The new maintenance free batteries will come with a five-year, unlimited km warranty. 

For charging, Zero Motorcycles has unveiled a 6kW charging module that claims to charge the bike six times faster than a standard charger. The fast charging module, though, would set you back GBP 2,300 (approx Rs 1.97 lakh).

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There is improvement in performance as well. Models using the ZF14.4 battery see power and torque bumped up by 30 per cent and ones using the ZF7.2 battery get a torque hike of 11 per cent. The bikes use a Z-Force motor, that has one moving part and does not require liquid or forced air cooling. The motor weighs the same as the competition, but makes 130 per cent more power and 150 per cent more torque. The bikes make upto 60PS at 5,300rpm and 110Nm from 0rpm onwards.

The bikes come with software that can be viewed via a smartphone app and will also allow users to update the bikes firmware by themselves.

Sadly, these bikes are too expensive (around Rs 7.15 lakh excluding duties) and will cater to a very niche market in India for Zero Motorcycles to consider getting the bikes here.