This is some serious "c-suite message to help you fall asleep at night territory".
In this scenario, have them do step 3..
3) push the button a second time.
I don't see anything inconsistent with a subscription if the manufacturer is responsible for replacing the battery during a warranty time. I prefer large ecosystems with 3rd party parts to dealing with proprietary manufacturing and warranties though.
He doesn't care how long the total life span is. It's perfectly capable of it (access to the option can be paid for so it's not equivalent to a hack) and he wants to go further on a single charge, so this is a perfectly reasonable tradeoff to make.
Just let the user make that choice without an absurd subscription.
Phones are designed that way as a way to prolong the longevity of the phone. This bike is designed this way as a way to extract a subscription. These two things are not the same.
Fuck Zero Motorbikes and their subscriptions!
HEVs also use only about 50% of the battery to reduce wear on it (go from 30 to 80 charge, no more).
No mom! I'm afraid of heights!
But anyway, I won't buy a vehicle with a subscription based feature list that isn't something like a concierge service. If it's in the vehicle, I've already paid for the gear. (This changes once there's a community of moto hackers that can disable the lockouts... ish)
The evil here is purely "pay monthly to unlock a configuration option", not the existence of such wear limiters. And that part is new.
Now, if you purchase any premium Zero like the SRF and SRS, every software upgrade comes unlocked and is apart of your purchase as you’d expect.
If you purchase their cheaper tier models like the DS and SR, then the “upgrades” can be software unlocked. I’m not a fan, but it is a one time fee from what I understand. It’s not a subscription. (correct me if you have conflicting data)
That in mind, my SR/F came off the lot with everything already enabled. I checked the app and there are no “upgrades” that can be purchased.
Zero also had a reputation of being one of the less repairable bikes, but they’ve been slowly going in the other direction.
I walked into a dealer being dead set on buying an Energica bike and not buying a Zero. They had no problem selling it to me, but after updating me on where the current state of Zero was vs Energica, I decided to buy the Zero and didn’t regret it in the least.
Seems like it could allow higher quality and cheaper products because they don't have to spend the money on keeping track of multiple hardware versions. Fewer models means the ones that do exist will be more tested and mass produced.
Then again, I've never ridden a motorcycle or even a bike, maybe things are different.
No it doesn't.
basically the more time that is spent not in the fully discharged state, the longer li-ion will last.
(this doesn't mean you want to leave it 100% charged either, that can also damage the pack; if leaving for extended non-use, leaving it at ~50% state of discharge is the generally recommended advice)
Industrial battery packs extract a fair bit more value from their cells than consumer packs because those customers pay for the extra expense to the manufacturer and they're willing and legally able to accept more complex warranty terms. It's tough to bring something like that to consumers. The fact that this is an option at all shows that competition is increasing along this axis.
I'd be surprised if it was literally dead weight. It's much easier to design a software control system that uses a common set of cells and caps the full charge than one that switches different cell blocks in depending on what's enabled.
On the other hand, if you connect the "unused" cell in parallel, it's absolutely crucial that it holds the same charge as the other cells at the time of connection. This is because the parallel pack's voltage will level out, leading to a substantial flow of current (essentially causing rapid charging/discharging of the cell). This can result in a fire or even a battery explosion if the cell voltages are too different.
All in all, physically detaching a battery might not be the best approach. The cells will experience different levels of wear, and variations in internal resistance will lead to problems with cell balancing and longer charging times.