Zero Agni Team Wins First North American Electric Superbike Race

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (May 19, 2010) – Team Zero Agni took home top honors at the inaugural TTXGP and goes down in history as the first winner of a fully electric-motorcycle championship-series road race held in North America. The 11-lap duel took place last Sunday at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, with accomplished AMA racer Shawn Higbee emerging victorious on his Zero/Agni prepared motorcycle.

Higbee’s qualification runs put him in pole position for the start, whereafter he held off an intense challenge from second-place finisher Michael Barnes. The stealthy competitors maintained a consistent pace that was only 18 seconds off the lap times of the AMA Superbikes, an impressive showing for the all-electric motorcycles in their first outing. To see videos and photos from the event, visit:http://www.zeromotorcycles.com/ttxgp

“I think this could turn into something big. It’s going to introduce a whole new industry to motorcycling,” Higbee said. “The engineers at Zero Motorcycles and Agni Motors are a whole new breed. I’m surprised at how close we are to gas bikes already. The lack of vibration is a new experience and the bike is very agile, you just glide along.”

“Shawn rode a great race, the motorcycle performed perfectly and the duel on the track was fun to watch,” said Gene Banman, CEO of Zero Motorcycles. “The effort that our team put into this race resulted in a fantastic demonstration of electric motorcycle performance. At the same time, Zero is using this as an opportunity to test the new designs and technology that will drive the next evolution of Zero’s production motorcycles.”

Zero Motorcycles and Agni Motors are no strangers to competition. In 2009, Zero Motorcycles held “The 24 Hours of Electricross” the world’s first all-electric 24-hour off-road race. Also in 2009, Agni Motors produced a win in the PRO Class at the inaugural TTXGP at the Isle of Man during the world’s first zero-carbon race.

This year, Zero Motorcycles claimed first place in the final heat of a European off-road race and third overall amongst a field of 250 gas motorcycles. Based on the success that Agni’s motors have displayed on the racetrack, Zero Motorcycles incorporated a race-proven Agni motor into the powertrains of the 2010 Zero S and Zero DS production models.