I love electric motorcycles. Really. But I don’t always love the direction the manufacturers seem to want to take them.
Instead of building electric motorcycles that emphasize the advantages of the powertrain, the manufacturers seem stubbornly insistent on trying to make electric motorcycles that are aimed at doing what traditional, internal-combustion-engine motorcycles do best. They don’t want to build useful but unexciting urban transportation, the setting where electric motorcycles excel. Instead, they want to build high performance superbikes. And now, an electric sport-touring motorcycle.
Traditional sport-touring motorcycle, non-traditional powertrain. Energica photo.
Introducing the Energica Experia
Italian company Energica has been building fast and expensive sport bikes and naked bikes for several years. The New York-based company Ideanomics acquired a majority stake in Energica earlier this year. Energica is now in its last year as the exclusive provider of race bikes for the MotoE series, a role Ducati will take over next year. Perhaps the shift away from racing fits with Energica’s newest model, the Experia. Energica says it provides “the ultimate long-distance riding experience.”
While a few determined riders have shown it’s possible to do long-distance travel on an electric motorcycle, it’s not easy. The Experia does seem to advance the case for traveling by electric motorcycles. The Experia’s advances include longer range and more charging options.
In terms of range, Energica claims 261 miles in the city and 130 at highway speeds for the Experia. Energica also claims to be the only manufacturer to incorporate Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 DC fast charging, giving riders more options. For example, Zero motorcycles offer Level 1 (your basic home outlet) and Level 2 (double the power) charging. LiveWire offers Level 1 or Level 3 DC fast charging, which is available at public charging stations. Energica incorporates all three.
Of course, if you’re traveling any distance, you’re going to need Level 3 charging. Energica says the Experia will recharge from zero percent to 80 percent in 40 minutes. So, if you have 130 miles of highway range, a long-distance trip will mean stringing together charging stations that are more or less 100 miles apart. How many riders will enjoy riding 100 miles and waiting 40 minutes, then repeating the process?
That also doesn’t take into account that you may arrive at the charging station to find it occupied or out of order. In any case, as my colleague Jen Dunstan learned when she tested a LiveWire ONE recently, if you want to take longer rides on an electric motorcycle, you can, but you’d better be a meticulous planner. In the press materials, Energica mentions “wanderlust,” but you absolutely cannot wander on an electric motorcycle currently. You have to plan your next shot of juice carefully.
Beyond the range and charging issues, the Experia has the goods of a modern sport-touring motorcycle: peak power of 102 horsepower and 85 foot-pounds of torque; seven ride modes, including three that are customizable by the rider; six levels of traction control; cornering ABS; a full three-bag luggage setup.
Two vital pieces of information are noticeably absent: weight and price. Energica says the battery in the Experia is lighter, but I’m not sure lighter than which previous model. Still, given the range, it can’t be a light motorcycle. As for price, Energica begins taking orders tomorrow, so I suppose that’s when we’ll find out what it costs.
The real use case for electric motorcycles
Almost 10 full years ago, I wrote a piece here wondering why we don’t see more electric scooters. Even then, now-defunct companies like Brammo and Mission Motors were intent on building high performance superbikes. But the best use case for an electric motorcycle is more like a scooter. You ride it to work, you ride it for local urban transportation. You plug it in at home, where electricity is less expensive than at public charging stations, and let it charge overnight. Then do it all over. You never go to a gas station, never change oil, spark plugs, or air filters, never have to save up for an expensive valve adjustment service. A small electric motorcycle provides an inexpensive, convenient, low-maintenance form of urban transportation.
Instead of building a wide range of these kinds of electric motorcycles for urban transportation, the motorcycle manufacturers want to build sexy, impractical machines. And in the process, they’ve ceded the market to electric bicycles. It’s no wonder electric bicycles are vastly outselling electric motorcycles worldwide. They actually do something useful, like get people where they need to go around the city, while electric motorcycles continue to be mostly expensive status symbols for the tiny slice of riders who are early adopters with lots of disposable income.
I love electric motorcycles. They’re fun to ride and I really value their simplicity and low maintenance. If I didn’t work from home all the time and had a traditional commute, I’d absolutely justify buying a Zero FXE or something similarly small. But most of the time, when I get on my motorcycle, I’m going a significant distance. That’s what the Experia is made to do, but in 2022, it just can’t do it anywhere near as well as a traditional ICE motorcycle.
The Experia looks nice, and I appreciate that it’s advancing the state of the art. But I still feel like it’s another wrong turn.
I, for one, love the idea of touring all the exciting places that are (checks specs) 130 miles or less from my hometown. That’s like a whole two hours, you know!
I can make it to Quincy, Illinois OR Doolittle, Missouri!!!
Unless Quincy or Doolittle have Level 3 charging stations, you might want to limit your sightseeing to exciting places that are within half of that 130-mile range. After all, you have to get back home.
Q Why don’t manufacturers make electric scooters?
A: They do in the developing world were motorcycles are primary transportation
Q: Why don’t manufacturers make electric scooters for the USA?
A: US riders as a whole use their bikes for recreation not commuting and scooters are looked down on. Large capacity scooters that are so popular in Europe sell in embarrassing low numbers in the USA as most riders can’t see spending $5K or more for something like a scooter.
Q: Why have electric bicycles taken off
A: Electric bikes don’t require registration, plates, or insurance and can use bike lanes, paths, and sidewalks. They are simple to carry inside so parking or security isn’t an issue. As a bonus most electric “bicycles” are actually uninsured and illegal electric mopeds, scooters or motorcycles but nobody enforces the law.
True on all points, especially the third one. Electric motorcycles work best as urban transportation, but for that use, electric bicycles are more attractive to most people for the reasons you cited. Most urban residents don’t have a parking spot where they can charge a motorcycle. I live in an apartment building in the city with no good place for an electric motorcycle but tons of indoor parking for bicycles. And the lack of regulation is important. Why get a scooter when an electric bicycle does essentially the same job and no one makes you get a motorcycle license, insurance and registration?
My argument is that there’s a small but real niche in between, for those whose transportation needs (or wants) require more than e-bicycle speeds but people who don’t want or need or can afford a superbike.
Yes, in the United States, motorcycles are mostly sold as toys and practical vehicles like big scooters sell in tiny numbers. High-performance, high-cost electric bikes like Energica’s sell in even tinier numbers.