Ducati amps up electric bike race

Ducati boss Claudio Domenicali rides a Hypermotard converted to electric power with a Zero FX powertrain and recently said the company is about to join the electric bike race.

At a recent student event in Spain he told the crowd: “The future is electric, we’re not far from starting series production.”

It’s no news that Ducati has been considering an electric model since about 2017 when a Ducati executive revealed they had electric plans for a motorcycle and a scooter by 2021.

In the same year, VW Group Chairman Matthias Mueller upped the ante saying Ducati would have an electric motorcycle “by 2020”.

Ducati has also collaborated with Milano Scuola Politecnica di Design (Design Polytechnic School) students to produce the futuristic Ducati Zero electric sports bike.

And, in preparation for electric motorcycles and scooters, Ducati introduced their first e-mountain bike, the MIG-RR, at the ECMA motorcycle show in Milan last November.

So it’s all gearing up for an electric Ducati motorcycle sooner rather than later.

However, Claudio is a bit vague about timing: “not far from starting series production”.

He makes it sound imminent, but it would be strange to start series production before unveiling a concept model.

Realistically, we expect a concept at EICMA later this year with bikes available for sale next year.

Electric bike race

Meanwhile, 2019 is looking like the official start of the big electric bike race:

• Italian electric motorcycle company Energica has developed a race bike for the 2019 MotoE World Cup series to be run at select MotoGP rounds;

  

• Harley-Davidson will make its electric LiveWire available for sale this year for $US29,799 ($A41,699) plus on-road costs, and in Australia in 2020;

  

• Chinese electric motorcycle company Super Soco will this year sell three electric models in Australia;

  

• The world’s fastest electric motorcycle, the 351km/h Lightning LS-218, will soon have a mass-market brother called the Strike costing $US12,998 (about $A18,000) with a 240km/h top speed, 240km of range and 35-minute DC fast charging; and

  

• Zero will unveil its “effortless powerful” SR/F naked bike on February 25, 2019.