MEDFORD,
Ore. (AP) — The drive to become the world's top electric motorcycle
maker has led Craig Bramscher around the globe — up twisting roads,
off-road and face-to-face with corporate heads who share belief in the
future of Brammo Motorsports' Enertia and Empulse.
It's also made those closest to him question his sanity at times.
In the days after Bramscher decided to develop and build electric motorcycles in Southern Oregon, he shared his vision with his wife. Jennifer Bramscher nodded and smiled reassuringly. Much later and millions of dollars down the road, she admitted what she really thought of the venture.
"She recently told some friends that she thought it was insane," Bramscher said.
At that point, Brammo had the American license to manufacture the Ariel Atom, a light-weight, high-speed, gas-powered automobile, and electric automaker Tesla had yet to debut its pricey products.
"Here we were with one of the fastest cars in the world and we were going to develop a relatively low-speed, battery-powered vehicle," he said. "Like everyone else, she thought motorcycles were supposed to make noise. She didn't tell me what she thought and let me pursue it.
"Once we got going she told me, 'You actually have a pretty good vision of the future.' I went from heel to hero."
Enertia models are now in production in Hungary, while the Empulse is going through final tweaks before assembly begins in July and production ramps up in August.
That should boost the company's Ashland employee count from 55 to 75 by year's end.
The journey has been anything but a straight shot, veering all over the globe as innovations and changing market conditions scrapped incumbent plans.
"We like disruptive ideas," Bramscher said. "They may not all work exactly the way we planned, but we learn so much each time."
There's an inside joke at Brammo's Clover Lane headquarters born of the company's pragmatic flexibility.
"Whenever we make a strong statement of what we are not going to do, everyone assumes we're going to get there very soon," Bramscher said. "You tell engineers something is not possible, they come back in a couple weeks and say here it is."
Batteries weren't on Bramscher's radar. After all, there were plenty of major players in the field.
"We said we would never build our own batteries. It was too research-intensive and too competitive," Bramscher said. "Clearly, there were billions of dollars invested in battery technology, why would we do that?"
It soon became apparent those billions of research dollars were targeted for automobiles. Promises of batteries with a higher energy density and lower costs failed to materialize. It turned out the battery packs Brammo developed for testing bikes in races on both sides of the Atlantic were a step or two ahead of what anyone else was making.
"We had developed the batteries specifically for racing — never with the intent of bringing them into production," he said. "But once we started, we saw that was what differentiates us from other bikes."
Likewise, Brammo didn't plan on engineering a gearbox into its bikes.
"Everyone talked about how we didn't need a gear box because electric motors had more torque and RPMs available," Bramscher said. "We believed it, too, and in many cases it's probably true."
But widespread efforts had proven a multiple-speed gear box provides early acceleration and high-speed performance. Brammo's Empulse has a 6-speed gear box.
"Doing the math, we found it would improve motorcyclists' control over the bike and give more regenerative braking (charging the battery while applying the brakes)."
After 2 1/2 years of development, Brammo has just brought the gear box into production, Bramscher said.
"At first, not everyone on our team liked it until we realized we had a good thing here," he said.
It's also made those closest to him question his sanity at times.
In the days after Bramscher decided to develop and build electric motorcycles in Southern Oregon, he shared his vision with his wife. Jennifer Bramscher nodded and smiled reassuringly. Much later and millions of dollars down the road, she admitted what she really thought of the venture.
"She recently told some friends that she thought it was insane," Bramscher said.
At that point, Brammo had the American license to manufacture the Ariel Atom, a light-weight, high-speed, gas-powered automobile, and electric automaker Tesla had yet to debut its pricey products.
"Here we were with one of the fastest cars in the world and we were going to develop a relatively low-speed, battery-powered vehicle," he said. "Like everyone else, she thought motorcycles were supposed to make noise. She didn't tell me what she thought and let me pursue it.
"Once we got going she told me, 'You actually have a pretty good vision of the future.' I went from heel to hero."
Enertia models are now in production in Hungary, while the Empulse is going through final tweaks before assembly begins in July and production ramps up in August.
That should boost the company's Ashland employee count from 55 to 75 by year's end.
The journey has been anything but a straight shot, veering all over the globe as innovations and changing market conditions scrapped incumbent plans.
"We like disruptive ideas," Bramscher said. "They may not all work exactly the way we planned, but we learn so much each time."
There's an inside joke at Brammo's Clover Lane headquarters born of the company's pragmatic flexibility.
"Whenever we make a strong statement of what we are not going to do, everyone assumes we're going to get there very soon," Bramscher said. "You tell engineers something is not possible, they come back in a couple weeks and say here it is."
Batteries weren't on Bramscher's radar. After all, there were plenty of major players in the field.
"We said we would never build our own batteries. It was too research-intensive and too competitive," Bramscher said. "Clearly, there were billions of dollars invested in battery technology, why would we do that?"
It soon became apparent those billions of research dollars were targeted for automobiles. Promises of batteries with a higher energy density and lower costs failed to materialize. It turned out the battery packs Brammo developed for testing bikes in races on both sides of the Atlantic were a step or two ahead of what anyone else was making.
"We had developed the batteries specifically for racing — never with the intent of bringing them into production," he said. "But once we started, we saw that was what differentiates us from other bikes."
Likewise, Brammo didn't plan on engineering a gearbox into its bikes.
"Everyone talked about how we didn't need a gear box because electric motors had more torque and RPMs available," Bramscher said. "We believed it, too, and in many cases it's probably true."
But widespread efforts had proven a multiple-speed gear box provides early acceleration and high-speed performance. Brammo's Empulse has a 6-speed gear box.
"Doing the math, we found it would improve motorcyclists' control over the bike and give more regenerative braking (charging the battery while applying the brakes)."
After 2 1/2 years of development, Brammo has just brought the gear box into production, Bramscher said.
"At first, not everyone on our team liked it until we realized we had a good thing here," he said.
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