Brammo drops price of Enertia electric motorcycle to $7,995

In an effort to bring electric vehicles to the masses, Brammo Chief Executive Craig Bramscher announced this week that the Oregon-based manufacturer will drop the price of its Enertia electric motorcycle to $7,995. The suggested retail price had been $11,995.

"We set the retail price two years ago, and now that we've built dozens of prototype bikes and built 100 for customers, we now have the real data to determine what it's going to cost us to build these and get them out in larger volumes, so we're able to price that in accordance now," Bramscher said.

The price reduction is possible because of "pricing in the supply chain and reducing labor and making systems more efficient," Bramscher said, adding that it takes about two hours to assemble an Enertia at its Ashland production facility. 

Additional price breaks on the bike are available through federal incentives, which allow buyers to write off 10% of the purchase price on their tax returns and, until the end of 2009, reimburse them for their state sales tax. Many states, including California and Oregon, provide additional incentives.

Anyone who's already purchased an Enertia is eligible for the lower price. According to Bramscher, they simply need to call the company at (541) 482-9555 or e-mail the firm at www.brammo.com to request a refund.

-- Susan Carpenter

Photo credit: Brammo

Electric motorcycle maker Brammo gains momentum

It’s been quite a week for Brammo Inc., the Oregon-based manufacturer of the Enertia electric motorcycle. Last Saturday, the company celebrated the opening of its first California sales outlet at the Best Buy store in El Segundo, where it held an event to unveil the for-sale version of its long-awaited product "and show people that it really existed," said Chief Executive Craig Bramscher, who days later flew to Washington  after accepting an invitation to the White House.

Saturday also marked the conclusion of the Shocking Barack tour, a publicity stunt the company had choreographed to draw attention to its supermoto-style EV. For 12 days, two Enertia riders traced the 700-mile route of the Detroit CEOs who last year drove their hybrid vehicles to Washington to plead for bailout money, having been scolded for taking their private jets a couple of weeks earlier. The electricity cost for the Brammo trip was $4 per bike.

While Shocking Barack was intended to show "the current administration and hopefully the president himself ... that there is an electric vehicle you can buy right now," the tour wound up shocking Bramscher, whose company attracted so much attention with  the tour that the CEO was invited to join more than 100 other leaders of the clean-energy economy at a White House forum Wednesday hosted by Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

"Our whole goal is to get equal treatment from state and federal incentives because motorcycles are treated differently from cars," Bramscher said, a message he said he passed on to Chu. Right now, on-road electric motorcycles are eligible for two tax incentives -- a 10% tax credit on the purchase price up to a maximum of $2,500, and a rebate of the state sales tax for buying a new vehicle in 2009. In California, the tax rebates would reduce the Enertia’s $11,995 suggested retail price to about $9,700.

"We think incentives should be based on the size of the battery pack because that’s the commodity that needs to get the cost down so more people go electric," Bramscher said. "If there’s a program manufacturers are eligible for, whether it’s a Department of Energy loan program to help support manufacturing facilities or grants for research and development, we’d love for some of that money to make it to Oregon or the West Coast, not just Michigan."

To help make his case, Bramscher was able to not only meet with his state's two U.S. senators -- Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley -- but also to actually let them swing a leg over. Bramscher said he met with 15 other legislators as well.

-- Susan Carpenter

Photo: Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher points out features of an Enertia electric motorcycle as Sen. Ron Wyden gets comfortable behind the handlebars. Credit: Brammo

PiCycle brings high style to the eco-commute

Electric bicycles occupy a strange vehicular netherland. Outfitted with pedals and other low-speed components, they’re more bicycle than motorcycle. But their motors prompt scorn among cycling purists, and their relatively high cost makes them a hard sell for the masses. Powered but not especially powerful, these bicycles-that-aren’t-really-bicycles occupy a niche within a niche, appealing to an already small minority within the country’s huge bicycling population – those who use their two wheels to commute rather than recreate.

The very word "commuting" is as unsexy as sanitation work, which makes something like the new PiCycle that much more intriguing. It’s a commuter-oriented electric bicycle that values style as much as substance. An exceptional art piece that is both practical and affordable, it almost requires its own category.

The PiCycle is the second iteration of an electric bicycle called the Pi, which was introduced two years ago with a price tag as highfalutin as its name. The Pi costs $7,500, which helps explain why just 40 of these arched, Ayn Randian anomalies have been sold. The new PiCycle costs one-third as much.

That’s right. It’s now $2,500.

Getting from A to B on Ultra Motor's A2B Metro electric bicycle

 

When it comes to annual sales, bicycles speed past motorcycles. About 20 million bikes are sold in the U.S. every year compared with a measly mil for motorcycles, though the two categories are, in other ways, similar. The majority of both are sold for recreation. Transportation is a small minority.

But small is a relative term. In the bicycle world, 1 million people use their rides for commuting. That population might be even larger if it weren't for lazy people like me, who live close enough to work to entertain the idea of bicycle commuting but don't because we'll sweat.

Enter the bike for the inactive: An electric, such as the Ultra Motor A2B Metro, which requires absolutely no effort to ride, other than a sense of balance. A power-on-demand electric bicycle, no pedaling is required unless you want some light exercise. Just twist the grip and go.

Just don't expect to go fast. Powered with a 250-watt lithium-ion battery, the bike is capable of only 20 mph, which it can maintain for about 20 miles on a charge. Pedaling like the Wicked Witch of the West, the A2B simply won't go any faster unless you're careening down a mountain or riding with a hurricane at your back (though swapping out the 42-tooth Shimano crank for one that has 46 could eke out another 3 miles per hour).

20 mph. 23 mph. Neither seem at all fast, but the A2B got me from my A -- my driveway -- to B -- my desk -- even faster than a car or motorcycle, mostly due to traffic and parking. I could just wheel the bike up to my computer and plug it into the same power strip, where it took about three hours to fully charge and cost (Sam Zell) mere pennies. The only problem is the charger. It isn't built in to the bike. The two-pound brick needs to be lugged to where you need it.

On the road, the A2B Metro made me feel like a cheat, as I passed regular bicycle commuters without even pedaling and plowed over the manhole covers my fellow bicyclists took pains to avoid. Skinned with three-inch tread tires, the A2B's 20-inch wheels lower the bike's center of gravity, which gave me the option of nimbly steering around a pothole or boldly riding through it. Either way, the bike was happy, and so was my back side, thanks to a cushy seat and inches of travel provided by the front fork and rear swing arm.

All in all, I thought the A2B was an easy and great way to get around. It didn't hurt that everywhere I went, people were complimenting me on the bike's chic and chunky profile. But I have to say, the price is a problem. At $2,700, when gas prices are low and the U.S. Department of Energy projects them to go even lower, that's a lot of money for so little power, especially when a small scooter, motorcycle or used car can be had for only slightly more dough. Unfortunately, many of the federal tax credits available on purchases of larger vehicles through the stimulus bill, such as a sales tax reimbursement on new cars and motorcycles and a 10% purchase price reimbursement on larger, two-wheeled electric vehicles, don't apply to a product such as the A2B Metro. As sensible, fun, cool and high-minded as the A2B is, it takes green to be green and ride one.

Ultra Motor A2B Metro electric bicycle
Base Price: $2,700*
Battery: 500-watt, 36-volt lithium ion
Maximum speed: 20 mph
Maximum range per charge: 20 miles*
Weight: 72 pounds

* additional battery costs an additional $650 and provides up to 20 more miles of range

-- Susan Carpenter

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Photo: Ultra Motor USA

For the record: Battery output of 250-watts and Weight of 82 pounds were incorrect in original publishing of this article. Have been corrected to 500-watt/72 pounds.