Mission R Electric Superbike Breaks Cover

After teasing us earlier last month with its silhouette, Mission Motors has finally taken the wraps off its Mission R electric race bike.

Boasting some big numbers, namely a 14.4 kWh battery pack and a 3-phace AC induction motor that makes 141hp and 115 lbs•ft of torque, the Mission R ticks all the right performance boxes with its 160mph top speed, 100 kW motor controller, regenative breaking, and barely race legal 545 lbs weight.

Taking lessons learned from the Mission One, Mission Motors has built the Mission R from the ground-up, and tapped some well known names to help the company make this striking motorcycle.

With James Parker (of GSX-RADD fame) designing the chassis, and Tim Prentice of Motonium working on the industrial design, the Mission R is not only a very pleasing motorcycle to look at (drool over that billet single-sided swingarm), but also incorporates some advanced concepts to make it a potent and compact racing weapon.

Oh, and did we mention the bike looks freaking fantastic?

Starting with the chassis, James Parker designed the Mission R’s unique Quad-Element frame layout, which has a chrome-moly trellis frame, joined to a billet aluminum front piece that incorporates the head stock and forward sub-frame.

Enclosed in a carbon fiber box, the Mission Motors managed to fit 14.4kWh of MissionEVT battery packs into the chassis design, while Parker’s main focus was centering the new Mission Motors AC induction motor at the Mission R’s exact center of gravity.

The densest component on the Mission R, Parker’s goal was to put the 3-phase AC induction motor as close to the center of gravity on the Mission R, so as to have the lowest moment of inertia possible.

With a wheelbase just 3/4 of an inch longer than a Ducati 1198 Superbike’s, the Mission R should be very flickable and responsive, and Mission touts that it will be one of the most compact and well-balanced designs on the 2011 racing grid.

With Tim Prentice working intimately with the Mission Motors engineers, Motonium’s industrial design aspects have not only made the Mission R very pragmatic in its design, with a small frontal-area and aggressive ergonomic, but also the electric race bike is a stunning two-wheeler that should turn more than a few petrol-minded heads at this weekend’s Long International Motorcycle Show.

We especially like Prentice’s fairing design that sweeps down from the front fairing to the bellypan, elegantly showing off the orange trellis frame. With plenty of carbon, and all the right go-fast parts, we challenge anyone not to get excited about this bike visually.

The Mission R isn’t destined to sit around and just look good though, as Mission Motors plans on going racing with the bike in the TTXGP series (just barely under the newly imposed maximum weight provision of 250kg), as well as taking on other series like the Laguna Seca e-Power Championship and Isle of Man TT Zero as Mission deems them fitting with the company’s goals.

As of right now Mission plans to only field one bike, with a rider not yet named, but could possibly field a second bike if the sponsorship and funding materializes for such an addition.

“Racing is in our DNA,” said Mission Motors Founder Edward West. “The crucible of the racing circuit is one of the key ways we advance our technology. Pushing the envelope for what is possible with electric drive shapes not only the future of motorsports, but the future of transportation.”

Using the Mission R as a rolling showcase of its designs and brainpower, there are no immediate plans at this time for the Mission R to be available as a street bike from Mission Motors, but the San Francisco based company is not willing to say never on that idea.

For now though, the Mission R will serve as a proving ground for the MissionEVT components and expertise, which Mission Motors hopes to sell to other manufacturers and OEMs inside and outside of the motorcycle industry.

While business seems to be booming for Mission, we think the sound we’ll be hearing the most of this weekend will be peoples’ jaws dropping when they see the Mission R in person at the Long Beach show. Scroll down for photos and technical specs.