So, after thinking further the rebate on an Enertia Plus purchase for existing owners (vs an optional simple battery exchange) is a very good idea.
Let's say you bought the Enertia shortly after the price drop was announced, around Dec 2009. The federal 10% rebate basically cancels out state tax, so you paid around $8k for your bike. Now the new bike is out at $9k, or effectively $6.5k for existing owners. I imagine the secondhand value for the Enertia 3.1 is probably around $5k, so the upgrade would cost existing owners around $1-2k after all is said and done. Not bad, considering that's basically the price difference between the $8k Enertia 3.1 and the $9k Enertia 6.0.
I haven't been following the fine print on the various state tax credits / rebates, but it could also potentially be a no-cost upgrade if you can take advantage of additional tax credits a second time.
Supposing that a significant number of owners take Brammo up on this offer, it establishes an immediate secondhand market for the lightly used Enertia 3.1s, with a lower entry point -- especially for those that cannot take advantage of the tax credit. It could also substantially increase Brammo's sales by percentage - after all, if 80% of Enertia owners upgrade, that's an 80% increase in total sales before counting new customers
Couple of remaining questions:
* Will customizations owners have made to their existing Enertias (enertia-ette) be compatible with the new Enertia? I can't imagine it makes sense to change the tooling for any component of the bike unnecessarily, unless these new bikes are now being assembled by Flextronics.
* What, if anything, will Brammo do for very recent customers? I've seen a couple retweets by BrammoCraig of owners tweeting their new purchase. Apple's model might be a good thing to follow - they'll offer a discount for any price drops within 30 days of purchase, or an at-cost upgrade to a new model.
* When are these bikes available?
