Battery technology is not ready.
Although the focus of zero emissions is on electric cars, motorcycles are an area in which this technology aims to be particularly useful. There are several manufacturers that are already exploring this field, but Ducati is not among them: the brand assures that there is still time for us to see their electric motorcycles.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Jason Chinnock, CEO of Ducati’s North American operations, said the reason for this is that battery technology isn’t ready, so it will take a few years to go zero emissions.
“There is no consumer motorcycle directly in development because it is still very early days. It’s really going to take battery technology to evolve. Once it’s evolved to the point where it makes sense for us to integrate it, where we can address performance, range and weight, that’s the trifecta,” he explains.
And he sentences that for them to get down to work with an electric motorcycle, this “still has to be clearly a Ducati.”
What is striking about this is the fact that the Italian firm, in fact, does manufacture e-bikes, although only for competition: it is the one that supplies the bikes with which to compete in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup. Of course, it is one thing to make models for racing and another to make them for the street.
There are several manufacturers that already have electric models, many of them start-ups and new companies focused exclusively on the market, but also other traditional brands such as Yamaha or Kawasaki, which have already presented their first zero-emission prototypes.
However, in general terms, the world of electric motorcycles is being approached from the access segments, with equivalents to mopeds and 125cc models, in which it is easier to adapt these mechanics, achieving even better performance than with combustion motorcycles.
However, in the segments in which Ducati operates, with large displacement and high performance motorcycles, mounting equivalent electrical mechanics implies large increases in weight that would impair driving sensations, which makes the firm still cautious about it.
