Are the electric motorcycle manufacturers so dead set on building something exciting and sexy that they’d rather risk going down with their ship than build something that would be easier to sell in numbers?
Let’s consider a few facts. One: While some people own both a motorcycle and a scooter, most tend to lean strongly toward one or the other, depending on how and why they ride. Two: In terms of their current capabilities and some of their selling points, such as operating costs and ease of operation, today’s electric motorcycles function more like scooters than motorcycles. Three: Most buyers of electric motorcycles in the U.S. today do not currently own a gasoline-powered motorcycle. Four: The electric motorcycle companies in the U.S., mainly Zero and Brammo, build nothing that looks like a scooter or is marketed like one.
This raises, in my mind, an obvious question: Why are they banging their heads against the wall by building vehicles that look like motorcycles and are marketed like motorcycles but work like a scooter and are generally sold to customers who would be more inclined to buy a scooter than a motorcycle?
Why are there no electric scooters?
Let’s set aside, for the moment, the “maxi scooters” that tend to blur the lines between scooters and motorcycles. For most potential buyers, a few factors make it immediately clear whether they want a scooter or a motorcycle.
What are the selling points of a motorcycle? High performance and often a high level of styling that strongly appeals to the buyer’s particular tastes.
What are the selling points of a scooter? Low cost of operation, ease of operation due to no clutch and light weight, simplicity and a style that’s more likely to be trendy, eco-friendly or “cuddly” than testosterone-infused.
It seems to me that potential electric motorcycle purchasers more closely resemble potential scooter buyers than motorcycle buyers. So why do Zero and Brammo insist on building vehicles that look like motorcycles but function more like scooters?
In short: Why are they trying to sell motorcycles to scooter buyers?
One mainstream magazine, in an article about electric motorcycles, even called them the motorcycle for people who don’t want a motorcycle. Are the electric motorcycle manufacturers so dead set on building something exciting and sexy that they’d rather go down with their ship than build something that would be easier to sell? Do their investors feel the same way?
 Like this Honda PCX scooter, electric motorcycles are easy to ride, are mainly good for urban transport because of limited range, and are cheap to operate… |
 …but instead of looking unintimidating to new riders, like a scooter, they look like this… |
 …and cost more than this. |
Mark Gardiner has an interesting take on this issue in his Bikewriter blog (probably the most intelligent blog in the motorcycle world, or at least the smartest one I’ve found yet). Gardiner cited the work of Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, about disruptive innovation. To over-summarize and over-simplify, disruptive innovations often come at the low end of the market, not the high end.
In my opinion, I would apply that to today’s electric motorcycle market and say that a company like Brammo might have faster success if it introduced an affordable scooter as urban transport instead of pouring years of effort and tons of investors’ dollars into building the Empulse (shown at right). The Empulse (if one ever makes it into a private owner’s hands; Brammo has been promising more than delivering for a long time) is a sexy beast, and technologically impressive. But it starts at $17,000 and will go a claimed 121 miles in city riding (less than half that on the highway) before the batteries are drained.
That places the Empulse (much as I love it, in theory) squarely in status-symbol territory for well-heeled, eco-aware early adopters.
If Brammo put some of its R&D money into building a $5,000 scooter with a 50-mile range and 55 mph top speed, instead of the Empulse’s $17,000 price, 121-mile range and 100 mph top speed, it might sell quite a few to people who were thinking of spending $3,400 for the Honda PCX scooter shown above, for example. At that price point, a Brammo electric scooter could actually be cheaper in the long run, due to fuel and maintenance costs and tax breaks.
If companies like Zero and Brammo don’t do it soon, I predict the mainstream motorcycle manufacturers finally will (BMW is edging closer to production of its Evolution C electric scooter, though in typical BMW fashion they won’t even hint at the price, for fear of shocking us; no pun intended). If that happens, Zero and Brammo will have forfeited part of their first-mover advantage.
But then what do I know? I’m just a motorcycle guy, not a scooter guy.
