Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Electric Cowboy]

The 10KW maybe has an easy explanation.

I don't know how it is in Japan (maybe Electric Cowboy knows) but in Europe the bike are like this (from Zeros Homepage)

There are different licencing criteria for electric motorcycles in the EU. The main difference is that, unlike internal combustion engine (ICE, or petrol engine) motorcycles which are rated on max power, electric motorcycles are rated and homologated on continuous power.

Therefore my 2012 DS has 9KW in the papers but 21KW Peak

Perhaps but even so, the ZForce motor is more than 10kw sustained.

[Mike Werner]

Here is the answer of Zero

To answer your question about the Terra Motors

-This product and announcement is a complete surprise to Zero
-They bought two of our bikes (a Zero S and a Zero DS ) to evaluate Zero powertrains for potential use in future vehicles
-Zero do not have a contract / supply agreement in place with them for the use of a Zero S to be repurposed as a Kiwami motorcycle

So it looks like a cowboy operation.....

[BSDThw]

How impertinent is this!

I know they had copied every thing of our technology at the beginning of Japans rise but now being a high-tech country it is a real shame!   

[NoiseBoy]

Strange for the Japanese to be so brazen in their copyright abuse. You expect it in China but I thought they are better than that.  I don't know whether they subscribe to international agreements or whether Zero are powerless to stop it.

[Richard230]

I thought the same thing.  You would not expect this sort of thing to come from Japan.     Not only have they made a clone of the Zero but they even made a close copy of Zero's website (although with a lot less detail provided).  And they are asking for dealers to sign up.  I wonder where they expect to get the additional Zero models to repaint and resell?  It is a strange operation, especially as they went to all the "trouble" of spreading the news all over the internet, thereby alerting Zero to their plans - whatever those are.     My guess is that their supply of Zeros is going to dry up pretty quickly.   

[Mike Werner]

I thought the same thing.  You would not expect this sort of thing to come from Japan.     Not only have they made a clone of the Zero but they even made a close copy of Zero's website (although with a lot less detail provided).  And they are asking for dealers to sign up.  I wonder where they expect to get the additional Zero models to repaint and resell?  It is a strange operation, especially as they went to all the "trouble" of spreading the news all over the internet, thereby alerting Zero to their plans - whatever those are.     My guess is that their supply of Zeros is going to dry up pretty quickly.   

yeah, Zero was shocked when I contacted them. This smells of reverse engineering. Sue the b*stards

[Biff]

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/01/31/terra-motors-kiwami-electric-motorcycle-really-zero-s/

AutoBlog did some research before regurgitating the information from the press release.

-ryan

[Mike Werner]

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/01/31/terra-motors-kiwami-electric-motorcycle-really-zero-s/

AutoBlog did some research before regurgitating the information from the press release.

-ryan

That's funny, since there wasn't a press release initially. And they didn't research, since I contacted Zero and got that ball rolling. They just forgot to credit my "work"...

[benswing]

That was my next question, whether Zero knew about this.  Will be interested to see what happens as this plays out.

[Richard230]

More from autoblog.com.  Don't forget to watch the video and read Terra's press release.  What were these guys thinking?   

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/01/31/terra-motors-kiwami-electric-motorcycle-really-zero-s/

[Electric Cowboy]

This is not very Japanese. There must have been either a mistake in communication, or these guys are cool with dishonoring their name and tarnishing their company.

I think it is pretty likely there was a miscommunication somewhere since Japanese culture and language is so different from american. Also both cultures have nuances not in the others. Sarcasm for example does not exist in Japan, and so they do not know what is going on when someone is being sarcastic. Also, in Japanese people do not have to say many words to convey a though as conversations set up a base of variables basically that are assumed throughout the conversation so they need not ever be said again until they change. This often times creates confusion for Americans when speaking with Japanese, and also leads to Japanese thinking they understand Americans when really they have no idea what is going on.

All that being said though... Hand crafted in Japan for India's roads??? For real??? I think it's time for someone to get out the white sheets and short sword...

-Brandon

[Burton]

That is what I was thinking too EC I am a huge fan of Japan and was even going to move there at one point and this seems like miss communication to me.

[Richard230]

Their press release says that the company was founded in 2010, with headquarters based in Shibuya, Tokyo, and with branches in Vietnam and the Philippines.  They claim to have 1,000 dealers and 3,000 "service networks" in Japan.  They also claim that their motorcycle is "absolutely handbuilt with Japanese state-of-the-art technology."  To me these statements just don't ring true, no matter what language they translate into.   

[Electric Cowboy]

I have talked to some of my Japanese bike contacts... Apparently Terra is known for being a shady company with questionable methods and a CEO that wants things now and doesn't want to pay for them. They told me he does not act Japanese and hope this doesn't effect Zeros relations with Japan.