Husqvarna continues to tout its electric dream, this time showing concepts for two electric scooters that couldn’t be more different from each other.
The first is a proper riding scooter, named the Husqvarna Vektorr. The other, well that’s most like a push-scooter that you’d see from one of those shared urban mobility companies – it’s called the Husqvarna Bltz.
A new type of Ducati will be taking center stage on Sunday, when the Italian brand begins its EICMA reveals. While we expect a number of new motorcycles from Borgo Panigale, like a new Hypermotard, the Panigale V4 R, and another Scrambler model, one machine we didn’t expect was an electric bicycle.
This is where the Ducati MIG-RR electric mountain bike comes in, with the Italian motorcycle brand partnering with the Italian e-bike maker Thok. Ducati is no stranger to branded bicycles, partnering with other brands in the past to bring Ducati bikes to market.
The Ducati MIG-RR is special though, as it marks Ducati’s first foray into the e-bike space, which is booming in Europe and just starting to gain traction in the United States.
For quite some time now, manufacturers have been focusing on this concept called the “last mile” – the idea that the final mile of a daily commute will have to be undertaken with something other than an automobile.
Driving this concern is the vehicle crackdown in urban centers, with cities like London, Paris, and others already creating congestion zones for their city centers, which all but outlaw the ability for one to commute via car into a downtown area.
Mass transit is surely filling this void, as are taxis, but we have also seen a shift towards two-wheeled solutions. That is where today’s story kicks in, as Ford is looking at its own city center solution, patenting a car concept that has a built-in motorcycle.
Stunting motorcycles, bicycles, tricycles, and sisters-in-law, the name of French trials rider Julien Dupont should be a familiar one to A&R readers by now. Similarly, the name of German car manufacturer Audi should also ring a bell, as the Auto Union’s recent $1.1 billion acquisition of Ducati Motor Holdings is certainly still fresh in every motorcyclist’s mind. A sign of maybe things to come, auto manufacturers have been working on something they call “last-mile transportation” which focuses on the use of short-distance urban transportation.
Cities like London are starting to impose congestion taxes, in an effort to curb road congestion in dense urban areas, as well as boost funding for roadway infrastructure. Despite the “drill at home” effort here in the US, the price of gas is surely only going to increase over the coming decade. Putting all this together, the long-term prospect of personal transportation is going to have to change dramatically over the next few generations, and car manufacturers know it.
Hoping to change with the times, we have seen car manufacturers and even motorcycle manufacturers dabble with the concept of branded motorcycles, scooters, and other sorts of low-impact transportation devices. One such endeavor from that train of thought is the Audi E-Bike. An exceptionally good looking piece of kit, the bike features a moped-like electric drivetrain, in addition to the traditional human-powered system. Carbon everything, LED headlight & taillight, frame-embeded dashboard, etc.
Oh, and that Dupont fellow? Well, someone has to make riding an electric bicycle look cool, right?