Zero Motorcycles CEO leaves to pursue Human Flying Machine

I was just writing about the EV Scooter and Motorcycle Industry yesterday, I got a couple of emails from people inside the companies telling me that their early investors worry exactly about what I wrote about. ( funny they all get in and want to sell shares to the next sucker who knows nothing about the Powersports Business.)

For those of you not following the EV scandals think Powersports Factory penny stocks, but at a higher level and then you understand the EV Motorcycle Industry on a worldwide scale. Nobody is really selling anything, but everyone is investing. There is industry push, supplier push, and the governments offering rebates/grants, but in the industrialized world limited consumer demand. Now I'm not saying that there isn't consumer demand there is, but it comes and goes with gas prices. So the EV industry really needs gas prices to go up more so than the motorcycle industry in general at this point. You need stable and sustainable consumer demand for all these new start ups from NoGas to American Electric Scooter Company.

E-bikes work in China, but they haven't really taken off in Europe. You have 40 plus private label companies and none is really making a profit.

My point is the industry needs to push the ones that can make a profit and work on the tech that does work. All the grants, resources, and money in the world won't work if you hire CEOs making $300,000 a year that have no concept of distribution. Putting a few electric bikes in Best Buy does not make a NATIONAL DEALER NETWORK nor does it mean a brand is established.

ZERO just lost its CEO he left with this quote " Founding Zero was exciting, fun and a lot of hard work. At this point, I think it is well established." - I have to ask how well established is it? I haven't seen one yet in a dealership and I visit 100 dealers a year.

Vectrix spent twice as much on marketing and still doesn't have the reach to say "well established."

Just weird in the last year more than half the E-Scooter / E-Motorcycle EV companies have shuffled and gotten rid or said founders left. I've seen a lot of former Vectrix USA staff (before the first bankruptcy) come an go at other companies, Peter at Current Motor, Phil at AMZ, now I see Neil Saiki at Zero. Below is the press release. It just makes you wonder if boards and investors want real long term strategies or is this all a big coincidence.

I guess if I had money I would want to build a human helicopter as well and quit my day job.



ZERO MOTORCYCLES FOUNDER LEAVES COMPANY TO ENTER THE SIKORSKY COMPETITION

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., (March 8, 2011) – Zero Motorcycles, the global leader in the electric motorcycle industry today announced that its founder, Neal Saiki, is leaving his daily operational responsibilities for the company and re-entering the Igor I. Sikorski Human Powered Helicopter Competition, which Neal first pursued at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo as an aeronautical engineering student in 1989. Neal and his wife, Lisa, founded Zero Motorcycles Inc. (then called Electricross) in their garage in Scotts Valley, Calif., in January of 2006. Now, five years later, the company has built a strong management team, an employee base of over 60 people and has just announced the industry’s broadest line of electric motorcycles for 2011.


“Neal had the vision, the talent and the courage to launch an electric motorcycle company before there really was an electric motorcycle industry, or even a market. His vision and hard work have helped make Zero the industry leader,” stated long-time Zero Motorcycles Board Member, Aflalo Guimarães, Managing Director of The Invus Group, Zero’s largest investor. “We are grateful to Neal and will continue to rely on his vision and counsel.” Zero Motorcycles is also a corporate sponsor of Neal’s entry into the competition.

Zero Motorcycles has added several industry veterans to its management team over the past year and is well positioned to execute the vision with which Neal launched the company. “Founding Zero was exciting, fun and a lot of hard work. At this point, I think it is well established. I’m extremely proud of the team we’ve assembled to carry Zero into the future. I can now move on to pursuing the dream of building a human powered flying machine,” stated Neal.