Husqvarna is looking towards an electric future, exploring the idea with this concept, the Husqvarna E-Pilen.
Based on the aesthetics we’ve see come from the Vitpilen lineup already, the E-Pilen wraps that look around a boxy battery pack that is good for a quoted 60 miles (100 km) of range.
Another year, and another April Fools Day is done and dusted, and this year’s affair was far less somber than 365 days ago, though the offerings on display in 2021 show a poor result from the motorcycling community.
Since Asphalt & Rubber is still on double-secret probation with Harley-Davidson for last year’s story, we decided to double-down on the Bar & Shield brand for this go-around. What are they going to do? Un-invite us from even more press launches this year? Pfft…
Our efforts saw us making an OnlyFans account for Harley-Davidson, paired with a story about how the folks in Milwaukee were using the pay-to-play content-creator site to reach a younger audience, all in a bid to turn the tide on their falling sales.
The whole thing is mostly an excuse to photoshop some sweet captions, and to make about half a dozen dick jokes at the expense of one of America’s most iconic brands. Such is the petty nature of motorcycle journalists.
All four Japanese motorcycle brands have agreed to a standard on swappable battery packs for two-wheelers, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha are reporting.
The Swappable Battery Consortium for Electric Motorcycles is focused only on the Japanese market, and shouldn’t be confused with a similar agreement and effort that Honda and other brands (Yamaha, KTM, and Piaggio) agreed to earlier this year.
Electric motorcycle concepts always seem to have a vein of the fanciful in them. Maybe it is because the thought of an electric powertrain feels like the future, and so designers swing for the fences on what the future could hold for society.
That seems to be the case here with the Aether electric motorcycle concept by Taiwanese designer Lin Yu Cheng, who has designed a motorcycle that cleans the air around it, while it rides down the road.
Two years ago, Triumph set out in a partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering, Integral Powertrain Ltd.’s e-Drive Division, and WMG at the University of Warwick to develop an electric motorcycle.
The group is funded from theUK government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) via Innovate UK, and today they have reached “Phase 2” of their four-phase development process.
Effectively, this means Triumph et al have developed an electric drivetrain package for a motorcycle, and to make this a little sexier, they are sharing their design sketches for the prototype bike that they plan to build in Phase 3 of the project.
Walt Siegl Motorcycles has a new two-wheeled work of art for us to drool over, and once again this machine is an electric motorcycle, following up Walt’s last bike, the beautiful PACT.
“Motorcycle” might be the wrong word to use on this latest bike though, as Walt’s creation lives in that blurred space between motorcycles, mopeds, and pedal-assist machinery, not to dissimilar from a plethora of other EV entries, including CAKE.
It is an interesting space for the motorcycle community to explore, and we have really only seen it on the OEM side with bikes like the Honda Grom and its ilk (which are selling like hotcakes, we might add).
Four major players in the motorcycle industry have joined forces when it comes to electric motorcycles, as Honda, Piaggio, KTM, and Yamaha have signed a letter of intent to create a consortium on swappable battery bikes for motorcycles and light vehicles.
BMW Motorrad is already playing around with the idea of its electric future, teasing us with electric scooters and fancy futuristic concepts that practically ride themselves, but what if the company’s future actually rested in its past?
Take for instance this electric sidecar concept by Spanish transportation design student Iago Valiño. Drawing off-road inspiration from the El Solitario troupe, the concept is a nod to BMW’s sidecars from the WWII era, but with an obviously modern flare.
One of the nuggets buried in Kawasaki’s 2021 model year motorcycle debut was the work that the Japanese brand is making on the front for alternative drivetrains to internal combusting engines.
Having already shown us work on its electric motorcycle designs, now Kawasaki is teasing some info from its hybrid-electric two-wheelers.
Another year, another electric scoot concept from BMW Motorrad – as one colleague put it.
He has a point, for how much BMW Motorrad talks about the future of mobility (it’s been close to a decade now), and how that future relies on electric vehicles, the German brand has been painfully slow in its attempts to bring an electric scooter to market.
Fresh off its news that it will continue as the MotoE bike supplier through 2022, Energica announces today that it has taken some of that knowledge from racing, and brought it to its electric motorcycle lineup.
Giving its models all an “RS” designation (standing for “Reparto Sportivo”), the Energica EGO+RS, Energica EVA EsseEsse9+ RS, and Energica EVA Ribelle RS feature new VMU software protocols that increase performance.