Last year, Italian electric racing motorcycle manufacturer Energica announced its intent to develop smaller, lighter weight electric motorbikes.
Now the company has progressed to bench testing a system that could become the powertrain for more affordable electric motorcycles designed for urban mobility.
The quest for smaller electric motorcycles comes in the form of a partnership between Energica and Dell’Orto.
The two companies have created a project known as E-Power, designed to create an innovative electric propulsion system for sustainable urban mobility.
While Energica is better known for its 241 km/h (150 mph) racing electric motorcycles that are used in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup, the E-Power drivetrain would be considerably lower power than Energica’s 107 kW (145 hp) powerplants.
As Energica explained in a statement provided to Electrek:
“The study, designing, simulation and components testing activities, which have continued incessantly also during the lockdown, have come to a close and testing of the complete system has begun on the test bench.”
The E-Power project will cover power levels from 2.5 kW to 15 kW (3.3 to 20 hp).
The lower end of that range would be similar to many 45 km/h (28 mph) electric scooters.
The higher end of that range could potentially reach highway speeds of 100 km/h (60 mph), though Energica has not yet released any top speed specs for the higher power level options.
The company has revealed that a modular 48V and 2.3kWh battery pack would power the vehicles, and multiple batteries could presumably be used on larger power models.
As the company continued:
“E-power is capable of satisfy all the needs at urban level and can be recharged via home charging sockets, without the need of ad-hoc charging infrastructures. The system developed by Dell’Orto and Energica distinguishes itself thanks to a strong integration that reduces the number of components and thus simplifies the system.
The control strategies of the system could make us of the decade of experience by Energica in the electric mobility sector (road and racing), and of almost 90 years of experience by Dell’Orto in motorcycling, and matches perfectly with Dell’Orto’s expert knowledge in small and mid-size industrial-scale applications.”
Energica’s current model line of electric motorcycles are all high power and high capacity models that fetch price tags well north of US$20,000.
The introduction of 50-125cc equivalent electric motorbikes would certainly reduce prices, but it would also put Energica in direct competition with a slew of other experienced electric scooter competitors.
It would also see the company following Harley-Davidson’s lead, starting with a high power electric motorcycle before following on with lighter and less expensive electric scooters and motorbikes.
Will Energica be able to leverage its expertise on the track to engineer interesting and affordable light electric motorbikes or scooters? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.
Author: Micah Toll
Source: Electrek
