“The first time we ran the MotoE bike at Misano with our MotoGP test rider, Michele Pirro, I asked him: ‘Tell me what you think?’ He thought for a long time because he was trying to find something wrong with it, but at the end he told me: ‘I can say nothing. Everything is perfect.’”
That’s how Ducati’s eMobility director, Roberto Canè, who has led the company’s first effort to make an electric motorcycle—developed for the single-make MotoE World Championship—describes the bike’s on-track debut. It’s high praise from someone whose day job is developing the motorcycles that currently dominate the highest echelon of racing. But even with this glowing report, it will be years before it’s possible to make an electric production bike that meets Ducati’s performance expectations.
There’s no doubt that electric power has become a genuine alternative to combustion engines in today’s cars, but the challenge of creating an electric motorcycle that can compete against fossil-fueled machines is significantly greater. Damon, Arc, and others are trying, but it may still be years before batteries become energy-dense enough to allow a two-wheeled equivalent of a Tesla to emerge and recalibrate our perceptions. Ducati, however, is preparing to be the company that does that when the time comes.
Two-Wheeled Ferrari
Ducati is a name that even non-motorcyclists will recognize. On par with Ferrari, the company is renowned for its beautiful street bikes and formidable success in racing. In 2022, Ducati took a clean sweep of manufacturer’ and riders’ titles in both World Superbike and MotoGP, and at the halfway point of 2023 it’s looking all but certain to repeat that feat.
Ducati has been part of the Volkswagen Group since 2012, when it was bought by Audi and held under its Lamborghini subsidiary. Since then, Ducati’s production bikes have shaken any lingering aura of unreliability.
Photograph: Ducati
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