The players included the Zero X motorcycle and the Quantya Track model.  The battle took place at a special event for the two electric bikes.  The event was part of the halftime show at the AMA Maxxis MiniMotor Supercross race.

Zero produces their motorcycles here in the U.S. while Quantya is based in Switzerland.  The battle proved to be a battle between bike makers and countries as both vied for the top spot in electric motorcycles. 

The winner, by a wide margin was the Quantya Track.  Quantya managed to place in first and second while Zero’s best finish was third.  Each company had 5 bikes in the competition.

Both companies could meet again soon on the street.  Zero has already released their Zero S street bike, and Quantya is getting their version for street use ready. 

The rivalry between both companies and the show down to make the best electric bikes could intrigue other makes to attempt to take on the competition.

Source:  Zero Press Release

PRESS RELEASE:

 AMERICA’S TOP ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE MANUFACTURER TAKES ON ITS EUROPEAN COMPETITOR IN A LAS VEGAS SHOWDOWN

 – Zero Motorcycles Meets Europe’s Quantya for their First Ever Public Race –

LAS VEGAS (April 28, 2009) – The world is about to witness a landmark moment in the electric vehicle industry. Today Zero Motorcycles announced a showdown with its European competitor. Ten fully electric motorcycles will compete in a dirt bike race, five from Zero and five from Quantya. The race marks the first time in history that any two electric motorcycle manufacturers will go head to head. It will take place in Las Vegas on May 1st at the Orleans Arena during the halftime show of the AMA/Maxxis MiniMoto Supercross race.

Absent will be the pungent smell of gasoline and the ear splitting noise of engines revving, but all around the Orleans Arena competing racers will be spraying up dirt and catching air as they vie for the title of fastest electric motocross bike in the world.

It will be the third year that Zero Motorcycles, a cutting-edge Santa Cruz based company, will participate in the race. However, this is the first time they will race against their all-electric European rival.

“Races such as this spark innovation in the world of electric motorcycles. This is the future of racing,” says Neal Saiki, founder and CTO of Zero Motorcycles. “The Zero X competed well in last year’s race and we are excited to showcase our new 2009 model.”

The race has drawn significant attention in the past. Previously, 2006 National Motocross Champion, Hall of Famer, and TV commentator Jeff Emig competed in the exhibition race against Dirt Rider editor, Jimmy Lewis. Both were riding Zero X prototypes. After the race Jeff Emig remarked, “I’m expecting the production version (of the Zero X) to have a huge impact in the motorsports industry.”

Electric motorcycles are starting to make a significant impact in the motorcycle industry and Zero is leading the way. This event marks a transition point in the greater motorcycle industry and signifies a big step into mainstream culture. The excitement is clearly growing. Ed Fields, a rider from Zero Motorcycles’ 24 Hours of Electricross, expresses it well. “These electric bikes are sick! They go like crazy and can take an incredible pounding.”

The electric showdown between Zero and Quantya will take place mid-show at this year’s AMA/ Maxxis MiniMoto Supercross on May 1st.

Zero Motorcycles is the next step in motorcycle evolution and represents the ultimate electric motorcycle technology. Unencumbered by conventional thinking about how they design, manufacture, and sell high performance electric motorcycles, Zero is on a mission to turn heads and revolutionize our industry by combining the best aspects of a traditional motorcycle with today’s most advanced technology. The result is an electric motorcycle line that’s insanely fast, and environmentally friendly.

 For information on Zero Motorcycles: http://www.zeromotorcycles.com

The reduction and oxidation reactions that occur at the electrodes of batteries produce a flow of electrons that generate and store energy. Conventional graphite electrodes can reversibly store one lithium ion for every six carbon atoms. To investigate the storage capacity of carbon nanotubes, Otto Zhou and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, first created bundles of the single-walled straws. They then shortened the tubes and opened their ends by immersing them in strong acids. Subsequent tests of their energy-holding potential, conducted using electrochemistry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, revealed an electrical storage capacity approximately double that of graphite. In explanation, the scientists note that the tubes’ open ends facilitated the diffusion of lithium atoms into their interiors. Indeed, the tiny straws managed to reversibly store one charged ion for every three carbon atoms.

As with many findings in the nascent field nanotechnology, commercial devices based on the work remain a ways off. “We’ll have to work on and overcome other practical issues before we can make real devices,” Zhou says, “but we are very optimistic.”

This article was published in 2002 on Scientific America by Sarah Graham. Mr Zhou was optimistic that we would overcome other practical issues to make this  commercially viable and we have, this is the technology that we are now bringing to market.

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After nine years of research and billions of dollars of testing ideas it is obvious that there is no technology or manufacturing process extant or on the horizon that can bring to the market a practical, economically competitive, lithium-ion battery that can be used in a power train for an electrified private passenger carrying motor vehicle. Why does the research continue?

Analysis

The article that I am discussing here uses experimentally derived numbers, not hype or emotion, to prove its point that the enormous amount of time and money, which has been dedicated to determining whether or not the theoretical conclusion that a lithium-ion battery should have more energy density on a weight for weight basis than any system based on nickel or lead electrochemistry, has failed to establish that such a conclusion, even if true, can be used to manufacture a practical device.

Endless announcements that one or another manipulation of, or discovery in, materials science has solved one or another of the problems holding back the production of an economical, durable, reliable, safe, and long lived battery of sufficient energy density and power delivery capability to be used in the electrification of a private passenger carrying motor vehicle have now become, frankly, boring. They all miss the point, which is that no one of them or any combination of them makes enough difference to make a difference.

Small rechargeable lithium-cobalt oxide batteries have been produced commercially since 1990 for use in portable personal electronics. These batteries work well enough and are better enough than other rechargeable batteries of their size and weight to justify selling them for a higher price than the traditional zinc carbon one time use batteries, which they replace.

For the simple reason that the length of time that a battery can deliver a constant power is key to the use of “portable” computers the rechargeable  lithium-cobalt-oxide battery also became standard for laptop computers where its ability to deliver enough power for longer than a rechargeable nickel metal hydride battery overcame its higher production-not raw materials-cost.

It turned out that nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries (NiMH) could be scaled up to a sufficient size to be used in a hybrid power train for a small car. But the inability of such batteries to survive deep discharge has eliminated their usefulness for fully electric-all battery-vehicle propulsion. A Toyota Prius, for example, can only be driven for a couple of miles at any useful speed if it is operating on battery power alone.

The lithium-ion battery was developed before the NiMH battery yet it has not yet been incorporated into a mass produced hybrid vehicle power train. Why not? The answer is that the scaling up of lithium-ion batteries gives inconsistent results, and this type of result cannot be used as the basis of a mass produced technology. The risk of failure is too high either for safety or investment.
 
The answer to this inconsistency in most technologies would be to put the technology on the shelf until the problems can be resolved, if ever. In a world with unlimited wealth continued trial and error might even be a good idea.

But we do not live in a world of unlimited wealth nor in one of unlimited engineering and scientific talent.

It is time to put a limit on the manpower and money that has been used to try and find a practical solution to the electrification of cars by onboard rechargeable batteries.

Fuel cells don’t work either because present technology is severely limited by natural resource availability.

The practical and economic answer is to use lead-acid batteries for the bulk of vehicle electrification, nickel metal hydride batteries for longer range and power in a hybrid configuration, and lithium-ion for high performance or where price is not an object.

I have come to this conclusion through reasoning based on experimentally derived numbers, because as the philosopher said reasoning based on any other basis is sophistry and illusion.

Author: Jack Lifton is an Independent consultant, focusing on the sourcing of nonferrous strategic metals. His work includes exploration and mining, and the recovery of metal values by the recycling of not only metals and their alloys but also of metal-based chemicals used as raw materials for component manufacturing….

First to Market in this case is not only critical for market share but also getting the best distribution partners to sell the battery and to legitimatize the battery, securing a small percentage of the battery industry will guarantee positive revenue streams for many years in the future.

Focusing on the industries with the highest demand allows us to remove any barriers to entry and demonstrate the ability of the brand. Battery markets in the US currently constitute $8.1 billion dollars of our national GDP.

The United States dependence on energy has caused a resurgence of interest in providing alternative fuel sources to meet this demand. In the electric wind generation markets, there will still need to be a source to store energy produced during periods of low production and this is where our battery technology will be a key driver to making these alternatives practical. Another key market is the transportation industry.

Advancement in hybrid and electric car industries will raise the demand for batteries and the technology will need to improve to make these demands practical, with the Carbon Nano Tube Battery can solve several of the issues associated to these markets.

The Military would benefit several ways with our technology. They are currently experimenting with their own versions of electric based vehicles and defense projects. Our battery would solve several solutions to some of their electric vehicle demands.

Most cities operate large fleets of diesel powered equipment. If a medium sized city spends $4,000,000 on diesel the city would immediately save a large proportion of the budget by converting to electric powered bus fleet.

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