Brammo is making some of the same mistakes Aptera made.
Aptera had an amazing concept. They did not release product, they did not ask their customers what THEY wanted to buy, Aptera kept tweaking and refining the design until they ran out of funding. Nissan announcing the Leaf finished them.
If Brammo released the Empulse last year, even with a price bump? Say $12k 6.0, $14k 8.0, $16k 10.0. Their competition would have been a $10k 3.9 kWh Zero S that could reach maybe 65-70 mph. Brammo would have absolutely cleaned up. They didn't release, and I think it's pretty clear that they *couldn't* release, or the product they could have released (single speed Empulse) would have been significantly deficient from either a price or performance standpoint.
The official explanation is that the delays were due to the inclusion of IET. I don't believe that - else why was the Enertia+ delayed a year? Simplest explanation is delays organizing manufacturing with Flextronics or getting the battery supplier straightened out. Both of these would also affect the Empulse.
The Enertia+ and Empulse will be awesome once they're released. And unlike Aptera, I think we will see both bikes very soon (though much later and significantly more expensive than originally promised).
But Brammo has lost my trust in their ability to commit to any kind of schedule or communicate effectively with their would-be customers. We didn't see info through most of January, February, March, or last week. I hope we hear news next week. I hope we're not hearing the same "info coming soon... next week... keep holding on" refrain through April and May.
My suggestion to Brammo? Get news out to your preorder customers. Drop a tidbit of new information. Give them a concrete date when they WILL hear an update - even if that update is just a new tidbit of information and the next concrete date. Stick to the concrete dates. Give us some glimpse over the monolithic wall of silence - photo of design prototypes, snapshot of Empulse frames being lined up, photo of new motor. Description of how the IET will work. A couple pages from the manual. Temperature range (operation, charging, storage) for new batteries. Battery pack configuration. It costs you NOTHING and it reassures the preorder customers that their bikes are moving along as fast as humanly possible.
Consider Aptera. Frequent product changes not based upon customer input, continuous schedule slips, very little customer contact and concrete information. Ran out of funding and perished.
Consider Tesla. Some product changes as original designs proved unfeasible (two-speed transmission). Shipped product. Pretty good customer engagement (from what I've followed) - including why design changes were made. Significant sales of very expensive two seater. Nearing introduction of second model.
I've cast my vote.. so to speak. I wish Brammo the best of luck - their successes make the EV field stronger. But I got off the "will they or won't they" train a little while back..
