Electric motorcycle debuts in South Jersey

Electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf have been on the market for a couple of years.  Now a South Jersey dealership is the first in the region to offer electric motorcycles.  

When you think motorcycle you think of the roar of a Harley, but the Zero motorcycles sound like a golf cart on steroids. This model can go up to 80 miles per hour and can run 100 miles before running out of juice.  Ted Eckenhoff owns the Cherry Hill dealership.  He’s excited about the concept of a clean motorcycle that is almost maintenance free.

“It’s something I see with the price of gas as people using for commuting people using it for their shore house, it’s quiet it’s maintenance free. The only thing you have to do to it is put tires on it or brakes,” said Eckenhoff.

Ted’s son Glenn Eckenhoff has been riding motorcycles since he was 10 and says the bike turns heads.

“You get stares, but I think they are looking for why is there no noise.  It’s a good looking bike it’s not like they are looking at it for the looks, they are looking at it because why doesn’t it make any noise.  When I was sitting in traffic on (Route) 73, I could hear people talking about me,” he said.

Recharging takes up to 8 hours and works on a standard electrical outlet  

Eckenhoff says it costs less than a dollar to charge up the bike.  Given a gasoline powered motorcycle already gets from 40 to 80 miles per gallon, it might take a long time for those low operating costs to pay off.