Electric scooters are nice, but a Zero Motorcycle fills the need for speed
Friday, April 24th, 2009
I had the chance to take a new Zero S electric motorcycle for a spin yesterday. Zero Motorcycles was in Toronto and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass. The California company launched its Zero S highway-capable motorcycle in the United States earlier this month and is now focusing its attention on its Canadian launch.
You can get the details from my Toronto Star article, but generally, I’ll say I was surprised at the power of this gearless machine. In fact, the torque was so strong it took some getting used to when starting from a stopped position. But seriously, acceleration? Holy crap Batman… this machine goes, like from zero to 100 km/h in less than four seconds (though I’d like to point out to my wife that I didn’t experience this first hand, given the limited space in the parking lot I was in). And very lightweight at just 102 kilograms.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca