Category: electric motorcycles

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Buell and Sauber Motorsport Team up to Create Electric Bikes Under the Name Fuell

Bad Name, Cool Idea

Most people remember Buell. The company went limp in 2009 and has existed only to produce racing bikes recently. Now it’s back in the saddle thanks to a partnership with Sauber Motorsport to start making electric bikes. With Buell’s success in the two-wheeled world and Sauber Motorsports success in Formula E, it’s a pair up that makes a lot of sense.

The company has two new bikes. One is a pedal-assist electric bicycle called the Fluid. It’s an attractive looking bike, with the electronics and batteries all housed within the frame. While not a completely revolutionary product, in our world of e-mobility, it’s probably a smart move by the company. It does have a pretty steep $3,295 price tag, but it also has swappable batteries, which is a smart concept and there are two versions, a 20-mph one and a 28-mph one. 

What really gets me excited, though is the electric motorcycle from the company called the Flow. It has a proprietary electric motor in the rear wheel. The company says the weight is housed low, and it looks like it. The bike makes 15 hp or 47 hp depending on the variant you choose.

While technical specifications for the bike have not yet surfaced, Autoblog estimates the price tag to come in around $10,995. In order to compete, Fuell will have to get over 100 miles per charge with its bike. I’d love it if they could pull it off. I’m ready for a Buell comeback.

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Tacita Proves Electric Motorcycle Batteries Are Good for the Long Haul

75,000 Miles and Counting

There are plenty of concerns with battery electric motorcycles. Range is probably the number one, but high on the list is the concern that batteries don’t last forever, and they’re expensive to replace. Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer Tacita sought to show its batteries are designed for longevity.

As a battery goes through its charge and discharge cycle, it loses a bit of its capacity. This means your range will decrease and the battery won’t be able to hold as much of a charge. This takes time, and Tacita thought it best to show the world how long this process actually takes in a modern battery installed on one of the company’s motorcycles. 

Since 2012, the company has put around 75,000 miles on one of its test bikes, according to electricmotorcycles.news. That bike still has the same battery in it, and Tacita says the bike still performs well. During that time, the battery went through more than 1,700 recharge cycles during that time.

While Tacita didn’t say the percentage of battery charge retained thus far, it does say the results prove the company’s claim that the battery will keep up to 80 percent of its charge even after 4,000 recharge cycles. That suggests to me that the battery must be more or less unaffected thus far.

It’s worth noting that the battery wasn’t just used on any old test bike. The company used the battery on the electric bike that was the first ever to compete in the Merzouga Rally in Morocco. From there the bike raced in several other races. Then the battery was transferred to other bikes. It has been in the same one since 2014.

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Here’s the 2020 Zero SR/F Electric Motorcycle

It’s an Impressive-Looking Bike

The electric motorcycle manufacturer Zero has finally released the details of its new SR/F electric motorcycle. The company spent the last couple of months teasing little tidbits of information about its bike, and now with all of the stats in, we can say things look pretty good. 

The Zero SR/F looks like an awesome naked motorcycle. The company really nailed it in the styling department. The SR/F delivers in the looks department. It’s sporty and aggressive without getting too weird. It’s a modern and attractive style that I can imagine few riders disliking.

Also, the power numbers are pretty great. The new electric motor on the SR/F makes 110 hp and 140 lb-ft of torque. That amount of power is good for a top speed of 124 mph. That’s not insanely fast, but it’s more than quick enough. With instant torque, I imagine it would get there pretty quickly, too.

The 14.4 kWh battery is the same used in the high-end versions of its S and SR models. It’s great that the company manages to get between 109 and 123 miles per charge depending on the speed you travel, but I was hoping for something a little bit more from the battery. Luckily, Zero has a power tank option that will come later that can boost range to 200 miles per charge. Charge times are also pretty low with the battery reaching 95 percent in as little as an hour.

Zero SR/F
Image from Zero

The price at $18,995 for the standard version (the premium sits at $20,995) is certainly much better than Harley’s LiveWire price but still wasn’t quite as low as I was hoping. With Lightning Motorcycles set to debut a motorcycle with more range standard and higher top speed for $13,000, I was hoping for a bit more. Still, this is by far the best Zero bike ever made, and a serious move forward.

 

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Ducati’s CEO Claudio Domenicali Talks Electric Motorcycles

Battery Technology Isn’t Quite There Yet

The future is electric. That’s what Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali said at a University of Bologna event not too long ago. In an interview with Motorcycle.com, Domenicali clarified his remarks. He said that he still believes in what he said, but that the electric future may still be a little ways off, at least for a real-deal motorcycle.

Domenicali said battery technology isn’t quite there yet. It would work for an e-mobility solution but not necessarily for a true motorcycle application. He said the possibilities for the future are wide-ranging. Ducati could get into e-mobility or just focus on more traditional electric motorcycles.

So, it will depend which type of vehicle. Basically, what makes the difference is the requested range, but I’m pretty sure that we will see a development in battery technology which at the end, it’s where everything starts from.

The battery technology and the ranges currently available seem to be what keeps Domenicali from thinking a traditional electric motorcycle is totally plausible right now. He sees a conflict between having a long range and a lightweight bike. “With the current technology, it’s a bit of niche because you need to compromise on range, basically, if you want to have a light motorcycle,” he said.

Domenicali sounded optimistic overall for the future of the technology and did seem to stick to his statement that the future is electric. However, it’s precisely that, the future. Not right now. Domenicali said digital technology is progressing faster than chemical technology, meaning battery developments are taking longer than some other kinds of technology advancements.

Because the battery tech—specifically the amount of range you can get in relation to how much a battery weighs—are still limiting, it may be a while before we see a true Ducati electric motorcycle. 

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NXT Rage Electric Commuter Motorcycle Launches

Rage Silently on Your Commute

There’s a definite electric motorcycle revolution occurring in the motorcycle industry. One of the latest entrants is NXT with its commuter bike called Rage. That’s a pretty extreme name for what is bound to be quite a quiet electric bike. Of course, NXT is hoping to make some serious noise in the industry.

With big names like Harley-Davidson, Lightning Motorcycles, and Zero Motorcycles coming out with their own bikes, it’ll be interesting to see if NXT can become the next big thing as it hopes. Its motorcycle certainly looks the part. It’s a naked commuter motorcycle designed and built in the Netherlands. 

NXT Rage electric motorcycle
Image from NXT

There’s little concrete info out there about the bike. The company says the naked design is perfect for a commuter bike, which I agree with. What I really want to know, though, are the specifications for the bike. At the moment the company has not released those numbers. It says they will be coming in the spring of 2019. Seeing as how that’s not far away, I’ll keep an eye out for future announcements.

With a bike designed for commuting, it doesn’t have to have a super-high range, but it’ll still need to be respectable and offer good acceleration and top speed. Also, a commuter bike can’t be too expensive.

With the high prices for some of the other electric bikes out there, it’ll be interesting to see where this one lands. I would love to see this thing land somewhere around or under $10,000, but I’m skeptical it will. It looks like a high-end machine.

 

 

 

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Lighting Motorcycles Teases Image of the Strike

The First Photo Looks Good

Lightning Motorcycle’s new Strike bike is set to be fully revealed in March. Until then, the company has to keep the attention of the media and interested prospective customers. Hence the latest teaser image. In the first photo of the Lightning Motorcycles’ Strike, you can see the bike’s electric motor. 

The company doesn’t offer up too much new information other than stating that the Strike will get a liquid-cooled motor. That’s interesting but not a big shocker. Electric motors give off plenty of heat, just like gasoline engines do, so this isn’t too much of a surprise considering the kind of performance Lightning Motorcycles claims.

My electric motorcycle knowledge isn’t as good as it probably should be, but the three orange high-voltage cables connecting to what is most certainly a three-phase brushless motor and what appears to be lightweight aluminum have me pretty excited for what’s to come. As electrek points out, there’s also Öhlins suspension peeking in from the top left of the image.

All of this info together doesn’t really give you much concrete info. However, it does give you a small glimpse into what Lightning Motorcycles has going. The Strike is shaping up to be one of the best electric motorcycles to come out this year. Any other motorcycle manufacturers building electric bikes should probably be apprehensive about this bike.

If Lightning Motorcycles can stick to its $13,000 price tag, deliver bikes on time, and produce motorcycles with high quality, then the company might have a real winner on its hands. More info will come in March, and we can’t wait. 

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Druid Motorcycles Shows Off Hybrid and Electric Bikes

Another Player to the EV Market

Add Druid Motorcycles to the list of companies that make electric bikes. Well, Druid makes an electric bike and a hybrid one. Other than some seriously obnoxious branding and the fact that the company is way too proud of its name, I’m pretty pumped about these bikes.

There are two of them, the Druid Sorcerer Hybrid and the Druid Sorcerer XEV. As you can probably figure out, the hybrid has both electric power and power from a gasoline engine whereas the XEV gets just electric power. Despite how you feel about the current wave of electric bikes, Druid offers some things that are truly unique.

The first is its variable-geometry frames made of 3D printed graphene. There’s also drive computers that use artificial intelligence, continuous cloud connectivity, and something called the Druid Prophet platform—artificial intelligence seems to be this company’s main concern.

Aside from that info, there isn’t much other than some intoxicating horsepower numbers. Druid claims the hybrid bike makes 230 hp from an AC electric motor and a 2 cylinder gas motor. It has a 14 kWh battery. The gas and electric combo are good for 200 miles of range. The all-electric bike manages 150 hp, according to the company, and there’s no mention of range.

Druid wants to start accepting pre-orders in May of this year. That said, can’t find anything about the actual price of the bike. I also can’t find any other specs or info on its technology. I have no doubt there’s some cool stuff here, but Druid will have to give us the details before I believe too many of its claims.

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RMK E2 Motorcycle Prototype Appears

Another Funky Electric Motorcycle

Electric motorcycle startup RMK showed off renderings of a future bike back in the summer of 2018. Now the company has a real-deal prototype that it will show off at the 2019 MP19 Motorcycle Show in Helsinki. The E2 prototype looks just as bonkers as the renderings, and the company listed some specs for the bike.

According to RMK, the E2 prototype makes around 67 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque from its hubless rear-drive wheel. RMK claims a top speed of about 99 mph thanks to its unique drive unit. The bike also comes with regenerative braking, and its wheelbase is 63 inches, which New Atlas reports is almost as long as BMW’s K1600GT touring bike.

The bike has a range of up to 300 km (around 186 miles) when properly equipped. Fast-charging enables 0 to 80 percent charge in just two hours. The company says it achieves its long range due to the bike’s unique frame structure that allows for a large battery and a relatively low weight of about 441 pounds.

If you’re sold on the bike via the specs listed above, you can already preorder your E2 on the company’s website. All you need to do is give the company your information and plop down a 2,000 euro (roughly $2,300) deposit. The company says it will start small-scale production in 2019. Large scale production will begin once the EU type-approval is complete.

I said it at the end of 2018—this year will be a big year for electric bikes. While I think it will take a while for us to start seeing more electric motorcycles actually out on the roads, 2019 is shaping up to be an electrically charged year for the motorcycle industry so far.

RMK E2 Prototype



Images from RMK

RMK E2 Prototype




 

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Cake’s New Kalk& Street Legal Bike Will Sell in U.S. and Europe

The Swedish Electric Invasion Begins

Get ready for a shocking new bike from Swedish company Cake. Okay, it’s not really all that shocking, but it is a fully electric motorcycle. Cake announced a street legal motorcycle that it will sell in Europe and the U.S. The bike is based on the Kalk OR, which is the company’s first bike. That motorcycle is a lightweight off-road bike, and now the street-legal version comes ready for pavement.

The new motorcycle gets lights (including tiny turn signals), license plate holder, and mirror mounts. As electrek points out those are important steps towards getting the bikes DOT and ECE certified for street use. The price and technical specifications for the Kalk& are still unknown. Cake said the bike would be available in March but didn’t list the other info.

What Do We Know?

With that said, the technical specs should be more or less the same to the off-road bike. That means it should have a battery that’s a 51.8V and 50 Ah Li-ion unit rated at 2.6 kWh. Powering the bike is a 15 kW motor. New Atlas and electrek both report new gearing for the street legal bike, meaning it can hit 100 km/h or 62 mph as its top speed. 

The range for the motorcycle is also unknown at this time. However, with the higher top speed, it’s unlikely that it will be super far. The faster you go, the more battery juice you use. The off-road bike can only travel up to 80 km per charge (just under 50 miles). That number simply isn’t enough for most people, though it could work for some urban commuters.

I actually like the look of the Kalk&. It reminds me of a wimpy version of the bike Tom Cruise rode in that weird sci-fi movie Oblivion. With that said, Cake has to up the range if it wants to sell these things. The low top speed of 60 mph isn’t a dealbreaker for me, but the likely 50 miles of range would be my reason for not buying one.

The low range is even more of an issue when you consider that the bike is bound to be expensive for what it is. The off-road version costs $13,000, and the street-legal version will probably be more. I’d rather wait for Lightning Motorcycle’s Strike. It’s supposed to do 150 miles per charge and cost the same.

Cake Kalk&
Images from Cake

Cake Kalk&

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Zero Motorcycles Teases New Image of SR/F

We reported not long ago that Zero has a new motorcycle in the works. It’s called the SR/F and the company just teased a new image of the bike (shown above).

While you can’t tell a ton from the image, you can see that it looks remarkably similar to the Zero SR. With that said, it should still be an all-new bike built on an all-new platform.

Zero will unveil more details on February 25th. It likely wants to get people talking about its bike again. While it stirred up some commotion with the first teaser of the SR/F, other manufacturers like Harley-Davidson and Lightning Motorcycles have dominated the electric motorcycle discussion since then.

This is Zero’s attempt to steer the conversation back towards itself. I can’t really say much about the SR/F at this time simply because I don’t know anything really other than what you can see from the image.

I assumed the F in SR/F meant the bike gets a fairing. However, from the profile image teased, it looks like another naked street bike with a more aggressive style but still a more upright seating position.

However, much of the bike is still in shadow and it’s hard to make out the details. All I know is that it better be able to match or beat Lightning Motorcycle’s Strike bike on battery range, speed, charging time, and price. That seems to be what the electric bike conversation revolves around.

If Zero can make its new bike for around or under $12,000 and beat the competition in terms of performance, then it’ll have a winner on its hands. More details will come in February.

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