At Crazy Craig’s Emporium of Enertias . . .
the Brammos are selling like hotcakes. Provided, however, that you’re talking about a hotcake that once sold for $12,000 and which just got $4,000 slashed off its price tag.
The more I thought about yesterdays stunning 33% price cut on Brammo Enertias, the more it sounded like one of those “Mad Mike’s Bargain Barn of Values” types of moves. ”Mike’s gone MAD, slashing prices right and left!”
Except, of course, Mad Mike doesn’t usually have to convince serious investors like Best Buy that his insanity has a purpose. Or that current profit margins are enough to sustain an adequate return on investment when the sales numbers increase and . . . Okay. I’m not fooling anybody here. I slept through the only Business course I ever took in college.
My point is that Crazy Craig may indeed be crazy . . . like a fox. He’s no stranger to calculated risks: He quit selling gas guzzling supercars that were providing he and his company with plenty of profits, and decided to produce an electric motorcycle. Now, with the investors that were required to reach this point, he has to justify these risks. Think those investors are keen on losing money? Or on waiting until some indefinite point in the future to possibly start making money? Not likely.
I only mention this “craziness” because it’s about the only negative comment I’ve been able to unearth, following the pricing announcement yesterday. I’ve been scouring forums and blogs and twitter during the past 24 hours. Plenty of comments sounded like this: “Been waiting for the Enertia to come down in price before I made the decision to buy. This clinched it.”
Still, you have to wonder, do a few comments here and there result in actual sales?
My super-secret source, deep within the bowels of the Brammowerks, suggests that all signs point to “yes.”
I can confirm a surge in web traffic and orders both via the web and from walk-ins to Best Buy.
Most customers will be able to ride away with a bike…..currently no one is waiting more than 48 hours.
(via the Brammole)
So there you have it. If you don’t want to have to wait too long, better get off that fence. I seriously doubt there will be any “Black Friday” specials coming out of Ashland, Oregon this year.
Get set… GO! Brammo Enertia now $7995
Brammo just announced a whopping 33% price reduction: From $11,995 to:
$7995
That’s cheaper than a toaster.
(I mean, a really BIG toaster)
Time to seriously consider buying one of these sweet bikes.
Also, you need to consider the 10% Federal tax incentive, which would bring the price down to $7,195. The presser mentions the 0% financing on a 24 month payment schedule through Best Buy, with $2000 down payment. That would make your payments only $249 a month. That’s almost my monthly gasoline bill for my Landcrusher SUV.
Is it time to buy?
I don’t know. Let’s go to the graphs:
Enertia Pricing, yesterday and today:
Wes Siler of HellForLeather.com just broke the news.
So what’s enabled the price to come down? “It’s the whole electric vehicle ecosystem,” says Craig, “this pricing breakthrough is in line with consumer electronics, where engineering and production advances get passed on to customers as quickly as possible to stimulate adoption of the technology.” As the company has refined its production process and established a base of demand for electric transportation, it now knows it can invest in making more motorcycles and selling them at a lower cost.
Congratulations to Brammo on figuring out how to do this. According to the article,
Brammo produced its 100th motorcycle, meaning the Oregon-based production line has passed its initial shakedown tests and is now capable of producing up to 10,000 bikes per year.
By the way, here’s the press release, for posterity’s sake:
Brammo Introduces New Price For The Enertia Plug-In Electric Motorcycle, Now $7,995
The 33% savings is a direct result of engineering advancesAshland, Oregon – November 10, 2009 – BRAMMO <http://www.brammo.com> , maker of plug-in electric motorcycles, announced today it is dropping the price of the all-electric BRAMMO Enertia powercycle, to $7,995. Customers are also eligible for a 10% federal income tax credit, further reducing the price to $7,195.
“While this pricing breakthrough is innovative in transportation, it is in line with consumer electronics, where engineering and production advances get passed on to customers as quickly as possible to stimulate adoption of the technology,” stated Craig Bramscher <http://www.twitter.com/brammocraig> , founder and CEO of Brammo. “The Enertia is consumer electronics that you can ride and BRAMMO’s engineers are able to deliver a better value proposition to customers sooner than a traditional transportation company.”
Today, qualified customers can walk into select Best Buy stores and with a $2,000 down payment, ride out on an Enertia for $249 a month with 24-month no interest with payments financing offered through Best Buy. The Enertia can also be purchased direct from www.BRAMMO.com <http://www.BRAMMO.com> in select states where the product is not yet available at a Best Buy.
The BRAMMO Enertia powercycle is the ideal commuter vehicle as it blends an exhilarating ride experience with environmental consciousness and low operating costs. The Enertia has a top speed of over 60 mph, has a range of 42 miles and charges in about four hours by plugging into a standard wall outlet—all while using less than a dollar in electricity per 100 miles ridden.
“With this price reduction Brammo has positioned electric vehicles for the mass market and consumers can now be part of a solution to the transportation crises that America is facing,” said Bramscher. “The wait is over, consumers can now buy an EV that is price competitive with a gas burning alternative and enjoy reduced maintenance and substantially lower ownership costs.”
Fans and media can follow Brammo on Twitter @BrammoSays <http://www.twitter.com/brammosays> and on its Facebook fan page, Brammo Powercycles <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brammo-Powercycles/155650127567>
On your marks . . .
The Big Brammo Ballyhoo should happen any time now, so I thought you might want to know where you can pick up a Brammo Enertia, or two, or even a (insert collective noun here).
According to Brammo’s store locator, the Enertia can be purchased at six locations in California and Oregon. I made a map . . . click through to the page:
UPDATE: Apparently, the two bay area stores have the bike on display but not officially for sale yet, due to not getting their paperwork processed by the California DMV. As I noted in an earlier post, one of the big hold ups to selling the bikes at Best Buy is that the store must get an automobile dealer license. According to Brian Wismann, the stores will be up and running and test rides will be available sometime in the next two weeks.
Of course, if you live in the other 48 states or in the rest of the world (assuming you can come and pick it up in the U.S.), you can always order online at Brammo.com.
Big Announcement, Today or Tomorrow
A ____________ of Enertias.
Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher has been tweeting about a big announcement that is going to be made today (Monday November 9, 2009), or tomorrow. It’s definitely not another ShockingBarack road trip, but is somehow related to the collective noun article posted earlier.
another clue – it is not another road trip, why else might you see groups of Enertias gathering sharing the joy of electric powercycleness?
Apparently it is not about the release of the “anti-scooter” that Asphalt and Rubber wrote about last September, because it says “groups of Enertias.”
Anybody want to hazard a guess? Did the Army just buy a squadron of the bikes? Is Best Buy rolling them out nationwide? Add your speculation in the comments, if you dare.
Brammo seeks collective nouns
From earlier today:
Brammo CEO, Craig Bramscher is thinking ahead (not an unusual mode for him) about a day when it’s commonplace to see three or more Enertia Powercycle riders terrorizing post-apocalyptic communities enjoying a ride together on a beautiful day. Oh, sure they already have motorcycle clubs and biker gangs. My impression is that what Bramscher is looking for is more of something like a collective noun.
Wow… the majority of my millions dozens of readers just responded with the sound of a glazing-over of eyes. Come on, “collective nouns” are the nouns that describe collections of things:
A pride of lions.
A gaggle of geese.
A herd of WalMart shoppers.
Sorry. Sometimes I can’t help myself when it comes to inserting early 1980s references.
The need for such a collective noun for Enertia powercycles has already occurred when a group of Brammo folks took several bikes up to the Pearl district in Portland, Oregon. Brian Wismann (@brammodesigner) tweeted “We’re on a charge up to Portland.” I thought that “a charge of Enertias” would be a good term, although I also like, “a surge of powercycles.”
Other answers tweeted in response to Bramscher’s request:
“An Environment of riders”
“Brammarians”
“Zappers”
“Enertians”
And one clever tweeter answered the question more literally. What do you call three or more riders of Enertias? A) Smart.
Any suggestions? Add ‘em in the comments.
