Wired's Review of Zero DS

[implovator]

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2013/04/zero-ds/

Reading about the DS for months has made me think a little about Brammo's decisions for the Empulse. Well after reading Wired's review, I'm certain that Brammo nailed every decision from the Level 2 onboard charging, the best-in-class street chassis, and the gearbox. The Zero app that lets you set regen sounded nice, but then I realized that they absolutely have to do that because they don't have a gearbox. Empulse owners, on the other hand, use the years of riding experience to set the regen based on current speed and gear selection. Brilliant!

[protomech]

J1772 charging is absolutely the way to go for onboard vehicle charging, but the Empulse's L1 cable set is rather cumbersome for transport. At some point in the future we'll laugh when we think about plugging in to 120 V outlets.. but we're not quite there yet.

If you need to charge on 120 V - as the author did at two intermediate points and at Alice's - the Zero is more convenient with a charging cable that stores in the frame.

I'm guessing the route looked like this:
http://goo.gl/maps/14CgJ

With a 30 minute, 3 hour, and 45 minute charge @ 1.3 kW, the Zero used around 15 kWh at the battery. Seems somewhat high for a 90 mile ride.

Assuming the bikes are similarly efficient, the Empulse could deliver the same battery energy with two 1h L2 charges (plug share shows a L2 EVSE in half moon bay and a bunch near San Bruno) and a 1h L1 charge at Alice's.

Regarding the Wired and Tired points: 'no maintenance' seems to be what sold the author on electric (per mention of selling his triumph), despite the lengthy charge times. Empulse is very good in this respect, but the gearbox trades complexity and higher maintenance levels for better low- and high-speed performance. The value of that tradeoff will vary from individual to individual, but I suspect the author would select a Zero DS over the Empulse.

Zero needs to offer a more powerful onboard charger, or at least a modular high-power charger configuration that nicely integrates into the bike. 1.3 kW is inadequate for activity charging like the author's day trip .. 3 kW with the Empulse is a big upgrade, but I think both companies need to get a 6 kW J1772 option out asap.

[ttxgpfan]

There's another reason we need to start seeing 6kW chargers.  We usually get charged per hour, despite how much juice we use.  Granted 3kW puts us on par with the lower spec Leaf.

It's the DC fast charging that gets me.  I have heard anywhere from $5-7/hr.  For a Zero or an Empulse if it had the option at a 1C rate that'd be only 9 or 11kWH used versus 24kWh with a Leaf.  So we'd be paying 2 to 3 times as much per kWh.  Not cool.