2010 Native S Review (Continue...)

...While Native is its own brand, it is only one element in its parent company’s overarching mission to make e-bikes viable. To get as many creative and visionary people involved as possible, Electric Motorsport functions as an “open source” company, selling parts and sharing knowledge. It's "GPR-S" chassis, from which the Native S is based, is available for anyone – be they professional builders creating their own e-bikes for sale, or private individuals.

As for Native Cycles, thus far it operates with only four western dealers (that can ship anywhere in the country but usually sell locally), and have sold only about 250 motorcycles and scooters.

But while you may not have heard much about Native, Electric Motorsport is anything but unknown in Electric Vehicle (EV) enthusiast circles. As a resource to the entire small world of the EV industry, it is called on for all sorts of projects, including electric motorcycle conversions and electric go-carts, while also filling orders from $400 to $10,000 for an elite list of buyers.

Its customers include MIT, Stanford, Brigham Young, Purdue, and other equally well-regarded universities from a total of about 200. Likewise, it has sold to Honda, Ford, Subaru, and other OEMs for their small behind-the-scenes projects.

Electric Motorsport even sold Zero Motorcycles its first 30 motors and allowed Zero to take its own name. Electric Motorsport once went by the moniker of “Zero,” and ran a website called TheZero.net. The company decided to let it go when founder and CEO Todd Kollin realized that the term “zero” is considered derogatory in Europe.

Electric Motorsport also routinely ships to Europe, Asia, Russia, Australia, Dubai, and more places worldwide. Additional domestic customers have included the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, NASA, and several more U.S. agencies.

The funny thing is, we had to drag all this info out of Kollin, who probably plays it down more than he should.

“It’s a fancy clientele list is what we have,” he admits, speaking of orders Electric Motorsport has filled. “It’s not always piecemeal, but they know where to get the stuff, so they call us up. Our motors and drive systems wind up in the craziest places I could never imagine.”

One of these crazy places have been electric-powered water pipe inspection equipment, life-size dinosaurs, irrigation equipment for the driest parts of Australia, barstool racers¬ – you name it.

At its core, Native is driven by motorcycle and bicycle riders still active in R&D and racing. This year, they’re fielding a converted Yamaha R6 in the TTXGP electric motorcycle racing series as they continue developing environmentally friendly ways to let people get where they want to go.

“We were never trying to be supersport. We were just trying to be transportation,” Kollin says, “We’re trying to push the smaller, lighter vehicles, and efficiency.”

To be continued...

SOURCE: http://motorcycle.com