In an interview by Yahoo Finance, Zero Motorcycles CEO, Sam Paschel speaks about the electric motorcycle space, future of the company and the Polaris deal.
The interview with Sam Paschel, CEO of Zero Motorcycles – just released (10.12) on Yahoo Finance. It touches on some of the most interesting points such as competition and Harley Davidson, the electric motorcycle space and Zero’s position in it, as well as the Polaris deal recently announced and how this may impact the business. Out key takeaways were how greatly focused Zero are on their brand and quality, their advantage over competitors, and how they truly shaped the space of electric motorcycles.
When asked at the end of the interview about the Polaris deal, and specifically whether Zero has plans of going public anytime soon, Paschel answered:
“…Yeah you know for us I’m focusing on, with the team here building and running the best business we can…the needs of the business will dictate our next steps are zero motorcycles it’s our job here to build the best business and brand we can’t and we know that creates a lot of options for us…”.
Sam Paschel, CEO – Zero Motorcycles
On Harley Davidson entering the space, Paschel commented:
“…Yeah you’re gonna have to bring the Harley folks on to talk specifically about their business. What I will tell you is that making a world class electric motorcycle isn’t as simple as taking an existing internal combustion engine bike and putting into power train into it, the types of challenges that you face , the size of the problem, it isn’t a difference in degree it’s a difference in kind…”
In a nice comparison to the technology that Zero produces and how Harley has some issues with their LiveWire kickoff, Paschel emphasized the brain behind their machines, saying
“unless you really spend the time to have commercial vehicles on the road and find all these corner cases that can really derail you and derail the performance of your motorcycle, you’re gonna have a really hard time doing it. We talk a lot about the idea that this is a vehicle with a central nervous system, with a brain, and we’ve got a mature brain that’s had a lot of experiences and if you’re just entering your a lot more likely to have the brain of a toddler and toddlers are phenomenal they’re cute but they’re really unreliable human beings…it takes a long time to figure out how to make these well so are these phenomenal brand they are 100 percent giving it a real shot we welcome anybody into the space is going to make a high quality vehicle and raise awareness for the category but it’s a really hard thing to do well.“
Sam Paschel, CEO – Zero Motorcycles
Another interesting point was the Tesla comparison, which is an appropriate one for a pioneering company in electric motorcycles. When asked why Zero motorcycles keep being compared to Tesla, Paschel replied
“I think that what you see that the similarities are one- we’ve been the brand that help to define the category and have been the protagonist for electrification in 2 wheels in the same way that Tesla does in the 4 wheel space…. the gap that we have over companies that are trying to enter the space I think those 2 factors – the supremacy of the technology that we’ve been working hard to create and the fact that we have been again at the forefront of both defining the category and leading the category are the 2 reasons at that comparison gets me a lot and we we love it we think that’s a fantastic.”
Sam Paschel, CEO – Zero Motorcycles
We also can’t wait to see what future opportunity may come from the Polaris deal and how Zero motorcycles benefits from it. They have been pioneering in production, quality, scaling and technology so far, with hopes to see much more in the future.
Watch the full interview here.
Via: Yahoo Finanace