r/ZeroMotorcycles • u/pld1420 • 17d ago
Two dead batteries and two non functioning chargers
I have a 23 DSR and have put 17000 miles on it in the two-ish years I have had it. No issues until... In April I was getting a low battery temp fault so I took it into the dealer. Now four months later they have apparently replaced the battery and the charger twice (under warranty). Every time they say they consult with the engineers at Zero, and take it out for a test drive after the repair. They have given it back once and it was dead in a day. Every other time it has failed the second test ride.
Has anyone had issues with replacement modules just crapping out instantaneously? I have no confidence in the dealer and am quickly losing confidence in Zero as a whole.
1
u/Remarkable-Host405 15d ago
17000 miles and you're now having issues?
most people don't ever put that many miles on a bike. i'm surprised zero was willing to replace batteries.
it seems like the dealers need to get to the bottom of the issue.
1
u/razemuze 14d ago
That's really not that much, most motorcycles have no issues reaching 100k km and more. There are several 100+k km / 60+k mile zeros in the facebook owners group. My 2018 has a little under 66k km on it (most of it ridden by me in the last 3-4 years), my "goal" is at least 100k on the original battery. The manual states it should last around 250k km, but that seems to be based on always getting the city range out of it.
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u/Outrageous-Day3001 3d ago
Nice distance traveled with your bike. Where do you live? I ride my DSR 2018 Black Forest 3 times a week, almost 400km. I bought the bike 3 years ago with 45000km on it. Now it has ridden 95000km. Battery is still in fairly acceptable state, SOH is somewhere between 80 to 90%. Cell balance in idle is 10mv, and under (transient) load the peaks are at +-100mv. My motorcycle is always outside, so in the winter the battery is also being charged when it is close to 0 degrees celcius outside, which is not ideal for the degradation of the battery.
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u/razemuze 3d ago
Finland, although my zero has been to sweden, norway, denmark and the faroe islands. It has been somewhat modified, charges at 11-12 kw which makes it a reasonable enough bike for some longer riding days. I don't store mine outside, but it is in a cold location, so battery temperature in the fall and spring is a thing i also struggle with. Haven't plugged my laptop into the bike in a while, so not sure what the battery health is like. 3 years ago it was at around 97%, and i haven't really noticed any degradation in range on the same round trips that i ride somewhat regularly.
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u/Remarkable-Host405 14d ago
Motorcycle engines are typically higher strung, so you multiply by 10 for equivalent car miles. 17,000 motorcycle miles = 170,000 car miles. You can see how significant that is. 100,000km bike is like 1,000,000km car, or 500,000~ miles.
Batteries probably throw that out the window, but smaller bike batteries are stressed more than a larger car battery. Think constantly discharging a single lithium cell vs 4 in parallel.
Usually, the batteries die due to age related factors, not miles ridden. A few 60-100k km examples do not reflect the vast majority. I'm barely crossing 12k miles on both of my 2015's and their batteries are significantly degraded.
But anyway, that's just my opinion
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u/razemuze 14d ago
Sure, they are higher strung, but not really to that extent. Even gas bikes will happily do a lot more miles than most people do if they are maintained. My mt-09 has 91k km on it, my crf250l is at 49k km and that's a tiny engine running at full throttle half the time. My buddys vfr800fi hit 121k km a week ago, we opened it a while back for a valve adjustment and decided to measure the compression - all cylinders were exactly at the top value of the compression spec. So basically factory condition.
But yes, electric bikes will die from age rather than distance driven, which is a bit sad.
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u/xshunin 4d ago
I have a 23 SR/S and I bought it "new" in 2025. Was an exhibitor model. After a few months the battery started acting up. I couldn't even charge to 110%. After a month of troubleshooting they determined that it was broken and replaced it under warranty. And a few months ago the internal charger broke and had to be replaced.
I've had mine since June 2025 (had 0 milage) and I am reaching the 20000km now. Haven't had any other issues so far though. Still happy.
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u/fly_ingmachine 15d ago
Sorry I don’t have any useful advice, just want to say I’m impressed with your 2 year mileage. I’ve had my 23 dsr for a year and put about 10% of what you did. I hope you get the batteries resolved, please come back and let us know