Plugged-in power

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When it comes to electric vehicles, the Tesla Roadster and Chevrolet Volt get all the love. But there are other EVs rolling around, and they're balancing on two wheels.

Since 2007, when Vectrix of Middletown, R.I., first rode onto the scene with its battery-powered Maxi Scooter, a growing number of U.S. start-ups have entered the plug-in two-wheeler market. They've invested millions of dollars in vehicles, many of which are poised for production within a year.

Led by pioneers with impressive resumes, these companies predict growth in spite of the down economy, and they're laying claim to niche markets with such boasts as "first" and "fastest" as they stake out territory in what many believe is the future of transportation.

"It's amazing how inefficient the vehicles we're driving today really are," said Forrest North, founder and chief executive of Mission Motorsports, a San Francisco company that unveiled the prototype for its 150-mph, 150-mile-range electric motorcycle at the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference in Long Beach, Calif., last month. "Electricity is just so many orders of magnitude more efficient that it's the only way to go," said North, a former mechanical designer for Tesla and leader of Stanford University's solar car team in the mid-1990s.

Like many EV entrepreneurs, North, 33, had looked into hydrogen and biodiesel as power sources but found them impractical. Hydrogen is abundant, but turning it into fuel and developing a distribution infrastructure is costly. Biodiesel can take more energy to produce than it generates.

With electricity, the infrastructure already exists: Electrical outlets are abundant. Battery technology also is improving by about 8 percent each year, North said, allowing bikes to easily upgrade once the chemistry comes along. Already, electric two-wheelers get the equivalent of about 300 to 500 miles per gallon. As technologies improve, they'll be able to generate even more energy with less weight and cost.

It's the power-to-weight ratio of existing batteries that is, in part, driving development of electric two-wheelers. Weighing less than 25 percent of a typical passenger car, two-wheeled scooters and motorcycles require fewer expensive batteries to bring them to speed. They also are simpler machines; they require fewer components and safety features; and they aren't subject to the same stringent governmental requirements as passenger cars.

That makes two wheels a less complicated and less expensive entry point than cars for electric drivetrain entrepreneurs, which is why electric two-wheelers also are coming on the market much faster, and more affordably, than their four-wheeled brethren. The majority of currently available production electric two wheelers cost less than $10,000.

Vectrix was the first company to manufacture a production electric two-wheeler. Since introducing its $11,000, 62-mph Maxi Scooter in August 2007, it has unveiled a second model and sold more than 1,500 vehicles globally. While that isn't a lot compared to the millions of cars sold every year, it represents a 300 percent increase in annual sales from 2007 to 2008. This year, the company says it's on track for 150 percent sales growth.

This spring, Vectrix will roll out a third scooter model, the $5,195, 30-mph VX-2.

Spring also is the target launch date for two other electric two-wheelers — Zero Motorcycles' Zero S and Brammo Motorsports' Enertia. Like Vectrix, the S and Enertia are oriented toward the commuter market. Unlike Vectrix, they are motorcycles.

"The market is definitely getting excited for an electric motorcycle," said Neal Saiki, 42, founder of Zero Motorcycles in Santa Cruz, Calif. "It's going to grow really rapidly as people realize how practical and fun and fast these motorcycles are. They can be environmental and have fun."

Founded by Saiki, a former NASA engineer, and funded in part by former Sun Microsystems executive Gene Banman, who now serves as Zero's chief executive, Zero has sold 200 of its $7,500 Zero X models — an off-road electric motorcycle with a 50-mph maximum speed and 40-mile range off a single charge. This year, it expects to sell at least twice as many bikes as it expands its model offerings with an S model — a supermoto-style, street-legal bike.

Not to be outdone, Honda and Yamaha have said they'll be coming out with electric motorcycles within two years.

While a rapidly deteriorating global economy and relatively low gasoline prices may not seem like the most ideal conditions for launching or ramping up a company in an unproven field, many of the two-wheeled EV startups say they have benefited from it. Craig Bramscher of Brammo Motorsports in Ashland says he raised $10 million in venture capital last year — all of it after the economy started melting down in September.

And when the first of his planned 300 Enertia electric motorcycles starts rolling off the line this May, he's thinking his company will be aided by the recently passed $787 billion economic stimulus package. The program includes a 10 percent tax credit on the purchase price of 2- and 3-wheeled electric vehicles with batteries generating at least 2.5 kilowatt hours of power.

"It seems like the right place, right time," said Bramscher, 48, former owner of Santa Monica software technology firm, Dream Media. "A lot of people haven't forgotten we've got an oil problem."

Although Bramscher is confident in his product and his business mode, he's hesitant to discuss sales projections.

"If the people expressing interest in test rides is any indication, it could be tremendous," he said. "I don't want to say numbers because it almost seems insane."

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