Don't be surprised if the next time you're browsing the aisles at Best Buy you run into an electric motorcycle just beyond the print cartridges, televisions,
DVR systems and
DVD stacks. According to reports, Best Buy will begin selling electric motorcycles -- including Brammo's Enertia bike -- along with the other electric bikes, Segway transporters and scooters it started selling at select West Coast Best Buy locations in May.
Speculation began that Best Buy would start selling the electric motorcycles back in March, when Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher told attendees at the Pacific Crest Clean Technology Conference that Brammo had approached Best Buy about offering the bikes through its retail outlets.
The Brammo Enertia plugs into a wall outlet and when fully charged can travel 45 miles at speeds of up to 53 miles an hour. According to product specifications from Brammo, the bike gets the equivalent of 373 miles per gallon and costs less than 1 cent per mile to run.
Best Buy hasn't officially stated when the Enertias will be on sale at retail locations. Brammo's MSRP is $11,995.
Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn told The Wall Street Journal he wasn't quite sure how readily Brammo's Enertia would sell compared to Best Buy's other technology offerings, but he likes "the muscles we're exercising."
While it might initially seem strange to sell vehicles alongside the bread-and-butter consumer electronics offerings on which it built a CE retailing empire, Best Buy's move definitely bears watching: here's a retailer that's never been afraid of "strange" -- or "change."
Former Best Buy Senior Vice President Michael London told attendees at Everything Channel's RetailVision show back in April that the CE retail landscape had never seen as much change as it had in the preceding months and that if he has learned anything, the retail risk-takers are the ones who will survive and thrive in a cutthroat landscape.
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