Interesting. Could the European pricing for the (base) Empulse be as low as or lower than the top-end Zero?
Yup.
European Zero pricing is very easy to find out. Take the amount in USD, label it with EUR.
Brammo pricing is according to Hans Eder (European Brammo representive):
Empulse for 14900 + 249 shipping (thats official, at least one says only 99 shipping)
Enertia 6950 + 99 shipping,
Enertia+ 9500 + 99 shipping.
All numbers are inclusive VAT (15-23 through the EU, but mostly ~20%), exclusive shipping if not noted else.
My opinion:
Zeros pricing people are assholes.
Brammos Empulse is acceptable priced as the European version will be modified slightly and is VAT included. Then again, producing with Flextronics in Hungary could be much cheaper than building that thing in the US like the US-Version.
The Enertia is once again highpriced I think - remember that it is built in the EU itself (Hungary is part of the EU and has signed the Schengenabkommen), which means that it can be shipped to the whole EU without any customs. ~7000 EUR are 9000 USD which is a noteable increase to 8000 USD americans have to pay (is that VAT included or not?), and americans have still to pay for shipping the Enertia over the pond.
The Enertia+ is acceptable priced, i think.