Source: Cycle World
Zero Motorcycles appears to be working on a Grom competitor. (Zero /)While mainstream motorcycle companies are still wrangling with how to approach the market for electric motorcycles, California’s Zero Motorcycles has been manufacturing and selling them for nearly 15 years. Having already set standards when it comes to EV two-wheelers that rival midsize gas-powered bikes, the company now appears to be turning its attention to a low-cost inner-city machine to take on the likes of Honda’s ever-popular Grom.A new design registered by Zero in Europe reveals the outline of an unfamiliar bike that looks substantially smaller than anything the company has made to date. It’s hard to get a precise sense of the machine’s scale, but if the circular headlight is a standard 5.75-inch unit, then a few rough measurements reveal that the front wheel is 14 inches in diameter, the rear is 12 inches, and the wheelbase is around 47 inches. Those numbers put the bike firmly into the Grom class—Honda’s minibike is within a whisker of those figures, with a 47.2-inch wheelbase and 12-inch rims at each end.The motorcycle in these patent drawings is clearly a smaller machine like the Honda Grom. (Zero/)The design registration is focused on the bike’s styling. The dotted lines showing the mechanical components underneath aren’t part of the registration, so don’t necessarily represent exactly what the finished bike will use. Having said that, there’s also little reason that they wouldn’t be accurate. If they are to be believed, the new small bike uses an upside-down fork and a single front disc brake with a radial-mount caliper.Unlike some other small electric bikes, it doesn’t use a hub-mounted motor, instead featuring a conventional chassis-mounted motor/transmission that looks like the one in the current Zero FXE, though it’s likely to be smaller and less powerful to reduce costs. The final drive will be by belt, again like the FXE, although the rear-belt pulley is much smaller. With a mere 12-inch rear wheel, it needs to be able to spin faster than a 17-incher to get the same road speed, so a smaller rear pulley would compensate for that.We believe the machine in the drawings will likely use the FXE’s 7.2kWh Z-Force Li-ion battery pack. (Zero/)For the battery, once again it looks like Zero is raiding its existing parts, as the pack’s dimensions appear to match those of the FXE’s 7.2kWh Z-Force Li-ion unit. To fit all that into a much smaller wheelbase, the motor is shifted backward, and the battery is mounted at an angle. It’s not clear from the images precisely how the rear suspension operates—the swingarm pivot can’t be seen, but there’s a coilover shock running parallel to the battery and just above it, visible though a slot between the battery and the bodywork.On board, the instrument panel is a typical digital display, appearing to match the unit used on several existing Zero models, and the mirrors and turn signals are also shared with other bikes in Zero’s range. The bike also follows Zero’s usual convention of retaining a conventional foot-operated rear brake rather than shifting it to the left bar, even though there’s no clutch or gear shifter to occupy your left hand or foot. Many other electric city bikes tend to move the rear brake to a left-hand bar lever, eliminating foot controls entirely like a twist-and-go scooter.Will the CFMoto Papio Nova have a new competitor? (CFMoto/)The logic of making a small bike oriented toward city use and fun rather than covering distances is clear to see. Honda’s Grom has already sparked several gas-powered rivals, and there have been a couple of attempts at electric bikes in the same part of the market, most notably CFMoto’s Papio Nova. City use takes the focus off the extremes of range and top speed—two areas that are still stumbling points for electric bikes—and puts the emphasis on ease of use and off-the-line acceleration, both zones where EVs have a clear edge. The existence of a design registration alone is far from confirmation that the Zero minibike has been green-lit for production, but if the company can make such a machine at a price low enough to appeal to the sort of casual users who might otherwise buy a Grom, then it could be a winner.
Full Text:
Zero Motorcycles appears to be working on a Grom competitor. (Zero /)
While mainstream motorcycle companies are still wrangling with how to approach the market for electric motorcycles, California’s Zero Motorcycles has been manufacturing and selling them for nearly 15 years. Having already set standards when it comes to EV two-wheelers that rival midsize gas-powered bikes, the company now appears to be turning its attention to a low-cost inner-city machine to take on the likes of Honda’s ever-popular Grom.
A new design registered by Zero in Europe reveals the outline of an unfamiliar bike that looks substantially smaller than anything the company has made to date. It’s hard to get a precise sense of the machine’s scale, but if the circular headlight is a standard 5.75-inch unit, then a few rough measurements reveal that the front wheel is 14 inches in diameter, the rear is 12 inches, and the wheelbase is around 47 inches. Those numbers put the bike firmly into the Grom class—Honda’s minibike is within a whisker of those figures, with a 47.2-inch wheelbase and 12-inch rims at each end.
The motorcycle in these patent drawings is clearly a smaller machine like the Honda Grom. (Zero/)
The design registration is focused on the bike’s styling. The dotted lines showing the mechanical components underneath aren’t part of the registration, so don’t necessarily represent exactly what the finished bike will use. Having said that, there’s also little reason that they wouldn’t be accurate. If they are to be believed, the new small bike uses an upside-down fork and a single front disc brake with a radial-mount caliper.
Unlike some other small electric bikes, it doesn’t use a hub-mounted motor, instead featuring a conventional chassis-mounted motor/transmission that looks like the one in the current Zero FXE, though it’s likely to be smaller and less powerful to reduce costs. The final drive will be by belt, again like the FXE, although the rear-belt pulley is much smaller. With a mere 12-inch rear wheel, it needs to be able to spin faster than a 17-incher to get the same road speed, so a smaller rear pulley would compensate for that.
We believe the machine in the drawings will likely use the FXE’s 7.2kWh Z-Force Li-ion battery pack. (Zero/)
For the battery, once again it looks like Zero is raiding its existing parts, as the pack’s dimensions appear to match those of the FXE’s 7.2kWh Z-Force Li-ion unit. To fit all that into a much smaller wheelbase, the motor is shifted backward, and the battery is mounted at an angle. It’s not clear from the images precisely how the rear suspension operates—the swingarm pivot can’t be seen, but there’s a coilover shock running parallel to the battery and just above it, visible though a slot between the battery and the bodywork.
On board, the instrument panel is a typical digital display, appearing to match the unit used on several existing Zero models, and the mirrors and turn signals are also shared with other bikes in Zero’s range. The bike also follows Zero’s usual convention of retaining a conventional foot-operated rear brake rather than shifting it to the left bar, even though there’s no clutch or gear shifter to occupy your left hand or foot. Many other electric city bikes tend to move the rear brake to a left-hand bar lever, eliminating foot controls entirely like a twist-and-go scooter.
Will the CFMoto Papio Nova have a new competitor? (CFMoto/)
The logic of making a small bike oriented toward city use and fun rather than covering distances is clear to see. Honda’s Grom has already sparked several gas-powered rivals, and there have been a couple of attempts at electric bikes in the same part of the market, most notably CFMoto’s Papio Nova. City use takes the focus off the extremes of range and top speed—two areas that are still stumbling points for electric bikes—and puts the emphasis on ease of use and off-the-line acceleration, both zones where EVs have a clear edge. The existence of a design registration alone is far from confirmation that the Zero minibike has been green-lit for production, but if the company can make such a machine at a price low enough to appeal to the sort of casual users who might otherwise buy a Grom, then it could be a winner.
