Electric vehicles are the future. Let’s discuss the electrification of the motorcycle!
Why are they the future? Well, we’re already seeing more and more electric vehicle (EV) cars on the roads, from short-distance town cars (Nissan, BMW, etc.), to long-distance cars (think Tesla, Jaguar). We’re also seeing leading countries implement legislation in the future to ban the sale of internal combustion engines (ICE) at some point in the future. We even have the ULEZ scheme coming to our capital soon which will attempt to curb the usage of polluting engines and will no doubt cause people to look at EVs a bit closer.
There’s now a growing motivation for people to consider buying an electric motorcycle, such as convenience (charge at home! No more petrol stations!), lower running costs, quieter operation within built-up areas and even performance (instant torque!).
Electric motorcycles are not a new concept, they’ve been around for over a hundred years, but they’ve yet to hit the mainstream, though more recently we have seen production electric motorcycles from brands such as Vectrix (which we reviewed a few years ago) to more modern, mainstream capable brands such as Zero Motorcycles, Energica, KTM and even BMW have a the C Evolution max-scooter.
The founder of Honda, Soichiro Honda supposedly once said: “Racing improves the breed”. To that end we have the brilliant TT Zero electric motorcycle road-race each year which is helping to further research & development into the technology needed to make electric motorcycles a viable alternative to ones with petrol engines.
There’s currently a number of interesting areas for motorcycle electrification:
- Mid-size commuter motorcycles
- Scooters
- Ride-share scooters
- Battery-swap schemes
- Racing
Exciting times. Let’s talk EM (electric motorcycles)!