Electric Motorcycle News

Zero Motorcycles, the global leader in the electric motorcycle industry, reported Tuesday that its founder, Neal Saiki, is leaving his daily operational responsibilities for the company.

Saiki will be re-entering the Igor I. Sikorski Human Powered Helicopter Competition, which Neal first pursued at Cal Poly, San Louis Obispo as an aeronautical engineering student in 1989.

Neal and his wife, Lisa, founded Zero Motorcycles Inc. (then called Electricross) in their garage in Scotts Valley, Calif., in January of 2006. Now, five years later, the company has built a strong management team, an employee base of over 60 people and has just announced the industry's broadest line of electric motorcycles for 2011.

Afalo Guimaraes (Managing Director of The Invus Group, Zero's largest investor, and a longtime Zero Motorcycles Board Member) says: "Neal had the vision, the talent and the courage to launch an electric motorcycle company before there really was an electric motorcycle industry, or even a market. His vision and hard work have helped make Zero the industry leader. We are grateful to Neal and will continue to rely on his vision and counsel."

Zero Motorcycles is also a corporate sponsor of Neal's entry into the competition.

Zero Motorcycles has added several industry veterans to its management team over the past year and is well positioned to execute the vision with which Neal launched the company.

Neal Saiki says: "Founding Zero was exciting, fun and a lot of hard work. At this point, I think it is well established. I'm extremely proud of the team we've assembled to carry Zero into the future. I can now move on to pursuing the dream of building a human powered flying machine."