Brammo Owners Forum

Most western european car manufacturers get their cars produced in Eastern Europe too. Better than investing in China where you have to display your technology to chinese competitors. For extra european brands, it allows to bypass import taxes (which are already fairly low) and shipping costs to a customer area
with high potential : commuting distances in Europe are lower due to higher population concentration and green concerns is fairly trendy amongst wealthy classes.

Brammo is already being somewhat "copied" by catalan motorcycle makers with its model called Volta EV1 with specs very close to the  Enertia :



Staying away from Europe would have meant loosing the EV motorcycle race down here. Now I wish the price shown in Euros on Brammo website for the Enertia Plus will "loose some weight", since the Euro is not worth 1.2 USD but more like 1.4 and over. There is an unexplanable 20% additional margin that bothers me, especially since electric motorcycles benefit from almost no government helps down here and, as claimed by Brammo CEO, electric motorcycles are "disposable electronic goods" like computers.

Motorcycle travelling in South America for the last 4 years, i noticed something : foreign unusual bikes (with cylenders over 400cc) are way less likely to be stolen. The reason is simple, the market for them is very narrow, parts are more difficult to sell and the frame is more identificable.

I guess this logic applies to electric bikes in the US. Sales are still marginal, which makes tracking of the thieves nerwork much easier for police inquieries.

Looks like i found what i was looking for...a few kilometers away from home, in the swiss alps!

Another company is developping 6 geared dual sport electric motorcycles, but the performances seem ahead of what Brammo is planning to offer :

Apart from the 6 gears, there is an option between performance and endurance, pleasure and commuting. but most interesting are the digits :

- over 120 km/h (75 mph) max speed : you can go on the highway without hindering...
- 120 km (75 miles) max range on eco mode : fits my communing needs (35 milesx2+city shopping)
- 1.5 h recharge time with a specific charger!!! this doubles my range since i can now go shopping, recharge on a parking slot and come back.

Here is the link : http://www.midrive.ch/wordpress/?page_id=1142&lang=en

Welcome to the forum. It should just be a matter of time until Brammos motorcycles are imported into France. Your trip to South America sounds interesting.

Actually, i believe the European market has much more potential than the North American one for several reasons :

- Taxes on gas are way higher : 70% of the total against 20% in the US
- Population density is also higher, which makes range limitations less of a handicap. 50 % of work/home commuting distances are below 6 miles in France.
- Public transportation is more developped, an electric commuting vehicule being a perfect complementary vehicule to go to a train station.
- The euro/ dollar change will durably give a competitive advantage to US exporters as long as the Fed will go on  printing dollars in fear of deflation,and, unlike latin american countries, european import taxes are very low.
- You dont need a special licence to ride motorcycles equivalent to 125cc thermic engines.

The E.V market is right now dominated by electric scooters (vectrix alike), but motorcycles are popular in cities since they allow to travel and park much faster. The weight/power ratio makes them far more exciting.

My two cents of a Euro
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Hi all,

I m Philippe, french biker who has been touring the world on an Yamaha 600 XTE for the last 20 years. I love that bike for its  reliability and the freedom to go almost anywhere i feel like on the planet hasselfree.

This year i m touring Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay and i m writing for the heart of the Menonite country in Filadelfia, Paraguay.

I m interested in Brammo bikes mainly for the summer time i spend in the mountains in France, since the nearest big town is 35 miles away and 5000 ft lower, i m looking for an electric bike with a 80 to 100 miles range that can get on the higway without hindering other vehicules (70 miles/h)

The Inertia plus is the nearest bike i could find on the narrow market of electric bikes to fit those specs. It s not yet enough since i wish i could also go off road on big tracks in the mountains with it as well, and i doubt the inertia was built for that.

My perfect electric bike would be a Yamaha 600 XTE trail bike with a slightly upgraded Inertia plus engine. I dont despair the Brammo team will follow one day Zero s path to dual purpose electric bikes.

That s all for now, Folks...