Fuel Cost of Riding a Zero Electric Motorcycle Compared A Previous Bike

 

Here is a pic of my Zero getting a free serving of Go Juice

at one of two ChargePoint stations in Lowell, MI.

People ask about the price of electric motorcycles all the time. At first, the price can seem a bit high. I just turned over 9,700 miles on my 2017 Zero DSR.  I bought it with 1,400 "demo" miles on it from Boondox Motor Sports in Caledonia in 2018. It was about $13,000 with the added cost of luggage and the windshield. 

I paid a similar price for this BMW Rockster a few years that I enjoyed for several years. I like to tell people that the only motorcycle that makes less noise than a Beemer is my Zero.

Now comes the fun part. According to my Zero App - the cost to fuel my DSR is about .01 per mile. The app lets you plug in your cost of electricity in order to figure such things. So, according to the App, my expense to travel 9,700 miles has been $97.00.

My Rockster averaged 38 mpg, which works out to 255.26 gallons to cover the same miles. It burned premium fuel of which the average price NOW is $2.80 gallon. To cover the same amount of miles on it would cost $714.73. I would have changed the oil twice in 9,700 miles on the Rockster. The filter was about $12 as I recall and 4 quarts of nice oil would be at least $20 - I tended to use a Synthetic Blend. So that is another $64.00 with me doing the oil change. I would have changed the oil in the shaft drive on the Rockster for another $15. Now we are at $790.00 round numbers vs $97. 

EVEN MORE FUN

However, I will make the case that my cost for going 9,700 miles is far less that $97.00 for the simple reason that many municipalities in Michigan have FREE Charging Stations. I live and own a small business in Lowell, MI and we have TWO free ChargePoint Stations in our town of 4,000 people.

Here are some places I have availed myself of free electricity while I ate, swam, shopped or just read a book and relaxed: Grand Rapids, Hart, Muskegon (in town and at the beach), Ludington, Sparta, Douglas, and Ferrysburg all come to mind.

Kudos to the City of Muskegon. The FREE chargepoint station is centrally located 

at their beautiful beach at Pere Marquette Park. 

The ChargePoint app will direct you to ALL the ChargePoint stations all over the country and tell you the cost before you get there.

I would wager at least 30% of the electricity I have used in my travels has been at no cost. On a recent Sunday I rode and rested for 12 hours - going from our home in Lowell all the way to Ludington and back all using back roads except for about 15 miles when I accidentally got on the freeway. I arrived home with about 10% of a charge showing after topping off at the beach location, Ludington, Hart, and another free outlet in Muskegon. 

All in all, it probably has cost me $60 in fuel to travel 9,700 miles. I had to replace my tires, but I would have had to do the same on the Rockster. $60 vs $790 gives you a glimpse of the pay back possible on an EV. I used to commute 20 miles a day (we live 3 blocks from our store and I walk) and by now I would have put one double or more the miles which would make a Zero ever MORE attractive.