Gallery: Electric Zerotracer Motorbike...

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Tobias, behind the wheel, says the bike has the safety of a car but rides with the excitement of a motorbike!

The second of two prototypes, the Zerotracer was on display at the Swiss pavilion in Abu Dhabi last week. It runs on lithium polymer batteries that can be charged up to 2,000 times in just two hours when using a three pin plug. (A regular household plug takes six hours.) Each charge lasts 250km, which means that this motorbike can travel 20,000 km per year for a whopping 25 years.

Equipped with a heater and a seatbelt and two stabilizing tires that retract, the Zerotracer has the comfort of a car but the excitement and aerodynamics of a motorbike. It has two seats and requires 0.7 liters of gasoline to travel 100 km. All of the components, including an electric engine from Brusa, are Swiss.

Wülser designed the Zerotracer with the specific purpose of traveling around the world in it, which he accomplished, starting with the Zero Emission Race Competition in Geneva in August 2010. Along the way, they charged the bike at McDonalds, campsites and other public places, all of which were thrilled to help. Now the team at Designwerk are working on building the world’s first electric truck!

All images by Tafline Laylin for Inhabitat

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3 Comments

Tafline Laylin February 11, 2013 at 10:19 pm

Thanks John Paul for pointing out my typo. The text should have read 20,000 km per year (not day!) It has been updated.
johnpaul2012 February 11, 2013 at 3:04 pm

There appears to be some errors in this story. It’s impossible to go 20,000km per day; and if the pack can be charged 2000 times, then charging it once a day would be about 6 years worth, NOT 25 years. I love this bike, but let’s get the facts straight please.
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“can be charged up to 2,000 times in just two hours when using a three pin plug. (A regular household plug takes six hours.) Each charge lasts 250km, which means that this motorbike can travel 20,000 km per day for a whopping 25 years.”
Blez January 22, 2013 at 4:59 pm

Delighted to see my friend Tobi & the Zerotracer getting some publicity, but there’s a lot of history missing from this story, and some considerable confusion! The ZeroTracer is a clear cousin of the electric Peraves Monotracer which was first built in 2009, and that was itself a development from the original Peraves Oekomobil/Ecomobile first built by Arnold Wagner in 1985 and first electrified by Roger Riedener and Felix Wagner, with the help of Brusa, in 2008. There were two electric Monotracers built by May 2010 before the first ZeroTracer was finished, and the ZeroTracer in any case uses a Monotracer bodyshell. Obviously none of the electric cabines machines requires any ‘gasoline’ at all!!!!! However, they are capable of sipping electricity at the equivalent of 300mpgUS, ie 300mpgE.

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