With the UK Government’s refusal to sell non-zero-emission motorcycles by 2035 (and Triumph’s TE-1, Ducati’s V21L, Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire, and Can Am’s recent forage into the electric industry) comes MV Agusta’s opinion on the matter; and while the iconic Italian marque DOES believe in the use of electric motorcycles – evidenced by their range of electric e-bikes and e-scooters – they don’t think the tech is ready for bigger performance models.
Not yet, anyway.
Such is the opinion of Agusta’s Research and Development Director, Brian Gillen, who sat for a while with MCN to chat about it.
Agusta’s Research and Development Director, Brian Gillen. Media sourced from MCN.“The Government’s proposed plan to phase out petrol bikes by 2035 is an aggressive stance that sends a clear message,” Gillen admits.
“There are numerous technical hurdles that must be overcome to allow the motorcycle industry to meet the current levels of performance and range with equivalent or lower weight and cost than the current internal combustion engines.”
With the industry’s high demands for small-capacity, versatile, urban scoots, MV Agusta’s current zero-emission ranges are enjoying the benefits of the economy – but will Agusta ever commit to transferring their successes in fossil fuel machines to a bigger, electric motorcycle build?
“We firmly believe that, due to the limited space available on a bike, the best solution will be full-electric rather than hybrid for performance and touring bikes,” agrees Gillan.
“Currently the technology exists for intra-city mobility lower performance motorcycles with limited range…but the battery technology for full-sized performance oriented motorcycles is not available on an industrial scale.”
With EICMA a few short months away, we’re looking forward to the season’s reveals – and who knows, maybe MV Agusta’s cooking something up and Gillan just has a stellar poker face.
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