The Zero S electric supermotard

The latest in our series of video road tests is America's leading electric motorcycle: the Zero S, from California's Zero Motorcycles. Seventy-five miles per hour and 60 miles between charges are the big numbers here – but how does that translate to real life use? Also, since electricity costs so much less than petrol, can an electric motorcycle be viewed as an economical option? And what about the environment? When the carbon cost of electricity generation is taken into account, how green are electric vehicles? These questions and more, answered after the jump!

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First up, watch the road test video to see how the Zero rides:

Now to the tricky bit – is the Zero S value for money, and how much better for the environment is it than an equivalent petrol bike?

Let's line it up against the Kawasaki KLX250F, a road-oriented single cylinder dirtbike of about the same weight and performance.

There's some pretty huge variables here, obviously, but we've done our best to come up with unbiased figures.

We figure the formula for cost of ownership goes something like this: Total cost of ownership = (purchase price) + (miles per energy unit X price per energy unit X miles) + (servicing costs).

We'll use 65,000 miles as our distance rating, because that's how long the Zero S will run before its battery takes a noticeable drop in performance and needs replacing.

So here we go:

Purchase Price

The Zero S costs US$10,000, not counting federal and state subsidies. The Kawasaki costs $5000. The Zero has a lot of catching up to do!

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