I Can’t Get My EV Motorcycle Locally Serviced Anymore

This week on EV Rider, something every motorcyclist who is considering an EV here in the U.S. needs to know.

By now, I had hoped to make this video and post a 30,000-mile review of my 2020 Zero SR/F, but I ran into an issue. I came out one morning, went to charge the bike, and it showed an indicated 0%. It wouldn’t accept a charge.

I’ve been doing troubleshooting since then, which is why you’re seeing the Zero with the plastics removed in the video at the top of this post. Among the first things I tried was replacing my 7-year-old 12-volt battery and resetting the BMU, but no luck.

It had been at 54%. In fact, the app still showed 54%. So, I went ahead, pulled the logs, and sent them to Zero. That’s one of the cool things about Zero Motorcycles: they do allow for a preliminary diagnosis in most cases if you can send your bike’s logs into their support team.

But here’s the big rub: I don’t have a local dealer anymore. My local Jacksonville dealer dropped Zero. My next closest dealer, about 80 miles away in Gainesville, Florida, also dropped Zero. So then I called the next closest dealer, which is roughly 110 or so miles away in Sanford, Florida—and guess what? They’ve dropped Zero as well.

And just to be clear, my local RideNow Beach Blvd. dealer, which up until recently carried Zero, is now refusing to service the bike for anything that requires a Zero-specific repair, despite me buying it new from them.

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Now, I don’t point all this out to slam Zero. But for potential electric motorcyclists, this is something that you need to know. And this, by the way, is not unique to Zero Motorcycles.

I did a quick check: LiveWire also is no longer carried here in Jacksonville by the local Harley-Davidson dealerships. I checked Daytona Beach—same story, they’ve also dropped LiveWire. However, I want to stress, I do not know if that means like RideNow, those dealers do not service existing customers that previously bought their LiveWires from them. That’s something existing or potential customers would need to verify.

So then I decided to check Can-Am, which also has a local dealership. Guess what? They don’t carry the electric side of the brand either. And if you’ve got an Energica, that brand has gone through a bankruptcy and reorganization and isn’t currently supporting U.S. customers in any meaningful way—although there is at least one dealer in New England doing his best to continue supporting U.S. customers while the Italian brand regroups.

Now, I’m not saying this to slam Zero, LiveWire, or any other brand. Instead, what I want to make sure people know is that if you’re buying an electric motorcycle, it’s not like buying a traditional Honda, Harley, or Indian. You’ve got to be very sure about what you’re getting into, because these are big investments.

In the case of my Zero, if I decide to have it repaired, I would have to have it towed or shipped more than 200 miles to get to the next closest in-state dealer, which in my case is in Tampa, FL.

And my example isn’t nearly as bad as some are facing. I believe in these products. I’ve been riding EV motorcycles since 2014, and I have been very happy with the customer support I’ve had from Zero. But right now, I’m in a lurch.

The preliminary diagnosis shows that I probably need a new Battery Management Unit (BMU). But because Zero can’t communicate with the bike, it can’t guarantee that is the only problem or the actual problem.

Right now, I’m waiting to hear back from Zero one final time before deciding what to do. But here’s the short story: if I were to send the bike to Tampa, I would probably spend $1,500 or more between shipping and an initial diagnosis due to labor costs before I would even know for certain that the BMU is the issue here.

And if it’s not, my bike’s out of warranty—I bought this bike way back in 2019. So, what am I going to do? I’ll follow up.

There’s a chance what I may end up doing is buying the part from the Tampa dealer (Zero does not sell parts directly to customers) and then have it shipped to Jacksonville, and installing it myself. But I’m still debating that because it’s a gamble.

Based on what I’m reading on the internet, there’s a chance a BMU swap won’t end up being plug-and-play, potentially still requiring a Zero dealer to connect to Zero’s server, although as best I can tell, that’s not mentioned in Zero service manual. So even if the BMU is the only problem, I might still be stuck paying to have it shipped.

I didn’t do this video to criticize electric motorcycles. Instead, I want to make sure any video I do is open and honest, so potential EV buyers consider all the facts.

And the facts are that in many cities around the U.S., it is not as sure a thing to have reliable service over the course of the ownership of the motorcycle as it is with the mainline traditional gasoline brands of motorcycles.

What I would say to people considering a new Zero, LiveWire, Can-Am, or any other brand: if at all possible, get the to commit in writing that they will service the bike for as long as you own it. If they won’t, that may say something about either the long-term viability of their dealership or their faith in the brand or brands they’re carrying.

And I would say as a community, we need to put pressure automotive and motorcycle companies – whether gas or EV – to make sure they support the right to repair. For example, in the case of this Zero, if I had to get a new battery pack, the part would need to be commissioned—which basically means a Zero tech would need to log in to the system to activate that battery on this bike.

That’s fine in a city where there’s a dealership with technicians. But if you’re in a city, country, or community that doesn’t have that option, what do you do?

Just food for thought. I will be back at some point to hopefully do that 30,000-mile review on my Zero, or at least tell you the outcome in my particular case.