Ducati has a knack for slapping its brand on just about every electric two-wheeler out there, but has yet to offer a true Ducati electric motorcycle. The company has dropped several hints that an electric Ducati could be in the stars, but first the company is giving us this cheap electric scooter instead.
Ducati releases electric scooter
Ducati’s latest electric two-wheeler partnership has served up what the company is calling the Ducati PRO-I EVO.
In other words, it appears to be a rebranded Xiaomi electric scooter. And not even the fancy-long range one, either.
The scooter is quite basic and offers a 350W hub motor paired with a 280 Wh battery. It can get up to a blistering top speed of 15.5 mph (25 km/h).
It’s also the same basic scooter we reviewed over three years ago under the original Xiaomi branding.
The move follows in the company’s own electric-everything-but-a-motorcycle footsteps. Ducati has consistently partnered with manufacturers of light electric vehicles to offer Ducati-branded versions.
Sometimes the models feature exclusive designs, but occasionally they’re nothing more than a sticker on a scooter.
One of Ducati’s first moves into the electric space was through a partnership with Thok E-Bikes and the releasing of an impressive downhill electric mountain bike under the Ducati brand.
The next Ducati electric two-wheeler came in the form of a partnership with Super SOCO and a Ducati-badged seated electric scooter.
It was closer to an electric motorcycle than an electric bicycle – but an electric motorcycle, it was not.
Ducati then doubled down on e-bikes with a number of new electric mountain bike models built through the partnership with Thok.
Those new models followed shortly after Ducati’s CEO promised that “the future is electric” and claimed that Ducati was already working on an electric motorcycle design. His wording made it sound like the bike was getting close to production-ready status and sent shockwaves of excitement through the industry.
Earlier this year, though, Ducati backtracked on its prior statements about electric motorcycle production and claimed it didn’t see an electric model in the company’s near future. Instead, the company indicated it would explore other options for greener motorcycles such as the use of synthetic fuels.
Ultimately, Ducati claimed that it didn’t think an electric motorcycle could perform as well as Ducati’s models, despite there already being several e-motorcycle models on the market that can out-accelerate Ducati’s own bikes.
So for the time being, it appears Ducati will stick to sticker slapping on light electric vehicles instead of investing in building its own true electric motorcycles.
The Venn diagram overlap between Ducati fans and electric motorcycle fans may be small, but they’ll have to keep waiting.
At least in the meantime they can tide themselves over with a $477 Ducati electric scooter. Yay?
via: Motociclismo
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Author: Micah Toll
Source: Electrek
