Ducati’s resistance to build an electric bike for consumers comes despite it building electric racing bikes
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by Brad Anderson
6 hours ago
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by Brad Anderson
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Ducati won’t start producing and selling an electric motorcycle to consumers for at least a few more years because of the current state of battery technologies.
While recently speaking with Bloomberg Television, chief executive of Ducati’s North American operations, Jason Chinnock, said that more work needs to be done to ensure that an electric motorcycle has adequate performance and range.
“It’s going to be some years,” he said. “The battery technology really isn’t there.”
While Ducati is part of the Volkswagen Group, it’s clear that it isn’t in a rush to switch to electric power like many other VW brands. As such, it is also behind motorcycle manufacturers like Harley-Davidson that have already ventured into the electric motorcycle space. Last year, Kawasaki unveiled a concept version of the first electric bike that it will bring to the market, similar in size to the Kawasaki Z400 and with performance equivalent to a combustion-powered 125 cc motorcycle.
Interestingly, Ducati knows how to produce an electric bike. In fact, it is the sole producer of electric bikes currently competing in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup championship but not even that will prompt it to rush the development of a consumer model.
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“There isn’t a consumer bike directly in development because this is still so early,” Chinnock added. “It’s really going to take battery tech to evolve. Once that is evolved to the point where it makes sense for us to integrate it in, where we can address performance and range and weight, that’s the trifecta. It still needs to be distinctly a Ducati.”
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