Written by Andrea O’Neil

Photograph by Sabrina Hyde

THE silence is eerie. Iain Jerrett has just turned the key in his electric motorcycle, but there is no revving, no sputtering exhaust – no sound at all. In place of the usual petrol gauge and rev-counter on the dashboard is an LCD screen monitoring the 27 batteries under the bike’s seat.

This sleek black machine, a retrofitted Triumph, is a working example of lithium battery power. It is also the fruit of two years of tool-shed tinkering by clean energy consultant and minor petrolhead Jerrett, director of Astara Technologies.

Onlookers always wonder at the silence of the Astara Triumph, Jerrett says. “When you listen to it, it just keeps winding up. People always say ‘we’re waiting for the gear change’, but there’s just no gear change.”

In fact, the bike fascinates people full stop. From grizzled Harley-Davidson riders to energy company CEOs, as soon as someone sees the word “electric” written on its flank, they come closer and start asking questions. How is it charged? You can plug it into a regular socket – a full charge takes eight hours and costs $1.30. How long will a charge last? Depends how fast you ride – you can travel 150 kilometres if you’re going 50 km/h, less at the bike’s top speed, 160km/h.

How much does it cost? Well, that depends. Jerrett isn’t primarily in the business of selling electric motorcycles, although commissions are coming thick and fast. The core of his business is a battery management system, a piece of hardware that ensures the lithium batteries are working safely, never over- charged or under-charged. The system can be used to supply electric power to a range of vehicles. “It doesn’t have to be pushing a bike, it could be pushing a car, a helicopter, a boat,” Jerrett says. He has already been approached to work on a powered underwater camera.

However, using a hulking great motorcycle as the showpiece for his battery management system has proved the ideal way of getting people interested in green power. “Electric vehicles don’t have to be boring, they don’t have to be slow, you know. They can be fun and they can be interesting, and not pollute. That’s really important, and that’s something I strongly believe in.”

Jerrett is quick to admit that electric motorcycles are not rare these days, and different types of battery management systems exist elsewhere too. “No it’s not unique, and in fact a lot of these guys are probably a little bit ahead of what I’m doing, because the American government is biffing a lot of funds at a lot of these technologies,” he says. “However, I think ours is going to be good and robust, and there are a lot of issues with battery management where the systems aren’t working so well – that’s our competitive advantage.”

Thinking creatively about applications for electric motors will define his customer base, he says. There is also demand, especially from Asia, for the next step up from electric scooters – “aspirational machines”, Jerrett calls them.  “It’s early days, and the market will be big enough for a lot of different players.”

In answer to the question of what an electric motorcycle costs, Jerrett spent $25,000 on the Astara Triumph in parts alone – he doesn’t like to think what he’d charge for his hundreds of hours of labour. If he made the bike today he would spend 20 to 30 per cent less, as the price of batteries is constantly coming down. In any case, the bike may have paid for itself by now, with all the attention it has attracted from sponsors, potential customers, and most importantly from business support services.

Funding and assistance has been crucial in getting the fledgling business off the ground. After building the Triumph in less than ideal conditions at home, Jerrett read in a local newspaper about Otaki’s new Clean Tech Centre of Excellence. A few phone calls in mid-2010 led to him setting up in the centre, which offers cheap rent, business mentoring and networking opportunities. Once installed, Jerrett was able to build 10 battery management units thanks to funding from TechNZ, a government business investment programme.

Another source of help has been institute of technology WelTec’s industry development arm, the Centre for Smart Product. The centre organised for students to reverse-engineer and model an improved battery case for his new electric bike, a racing model. “WelTec students – some of those guys are so enthusiastic and extremely good at what they did,” Jerrett says.

“The students were all over it,” laughs Paul Mather, the Centre for Smart Product’s director of technology development. “We’re all petrolheads.”

Jerrett is typical of the entrepreneurs Mather sees at the centre, he says – people with a reasonable level of experience in their field who have a new product to develop. “He’s a guy who’s been in the electronics industry for a long time, and so comes from that background. He’s doing something as a hobby almost but it’s developing into a business.”

Mather works differently with each business his centre assists. Some businesses make use of WelTec’s specialist equipment, such as its rapid prototyper, which they could never afford to purchase themselves. The centre can also help secure funding for joint projects from agencies like Grow Wellington and the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Firms that need assistance with staff training or business certification can work with WelTec’s other industry development agency, the Centre for Smart Business. Companies might use this service to gain environmental accreditation, which is crucial for exporting to environmentally strict countries, or competing with products from those countries here in New Zealand. “You’re globally competitive whether you’re exporting or not,” Mather says.

Often WelTec’s association with a business will start with a student project, and will then develop into a financial relationship. “It’s about building relationships where you become part of their resource. And there are advantages, obviously, for us in doing that.” Aside from the potential revenue for parent WelTec from any formal partnerships, the centre gains knowledge and skills from the businesses it helps. “We get advantages by having access to their skilled staff who can maybe put inputs into our teaching, or some of our equipment.”

Aside from any material gain, WelTec has a genuine desire to grow business in Wellington, if only to ensure plentiful employment opportunities for its students. “That’s part of being a vocational institution instead of a university which is more research-focused. Our whole reason of being is to frame people to be work-ready.” Keeping connected to industry is the key to staying relevant in today’s workforce, Mather says. “Industry changes. It’s a live thing, it doesn’t stay still. So we have to move too.”

It’s all too easy for small business owners to bury their heads in work and ignore the many types of support available to them, Jerrett says. But it’s well worth applying for assistance. Jerrett’s link with WelTec has so far cost him nothing – students gained academic credit for their work on the Astara Triumph, so the Centre for Smart Product wrote off the assistance as a value swap.

Jerrett says the deal was an effective incentive to work with WelTec again. “I don’t think it will continue to be free. But, I’ve seen some of the facilities they’ve got, so I believe that there’s certainly opportunities there for further assistance.” He already has a job in mind: once he finishes the electric racing bike, he will use WelTec’s paint shop to spray it bright orange – electric orange.