Episode 287 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us looking at the unveiling of the Ducati MotoE race bike for the 2023 season.
On the mics, we have David Emmett and Jensen Beeler as they look what is taking place in electric motorcycle racing with the FIM MotoE World Cup.
Today is a big day for Ducati Motor Holding, as it is making its public debut of its upcoming MotoE race bike.
The first Ducati-branded electric motorcycle, the “V21L” is not only a culmination of Ducati’s motorcycle knowledge, but also a testing platform for the Italian brand to understand the future of two-wheel racing.
The bombshell racing news for 2023 has to be the fact that Ducati is taking over as the sole-manufacturer of the FIM MotoE World Cup, which runs at select MotoGP race rounds.
Before this news, Ducati was perhaps the last brand you would expect to embrace an electric powertrain, and since their MotoE announcement, the folks in Borgo Panigale have been working publicly on that goal with gusto.
Now today, we get our first proper glimpse at the Ducati “V21L” MotoE project, but also some of the performance specs we can expect in the MotoE series.
First off, the numbers you are dying to hear: 495 lbs (225 kg) ready-to-race, 150hp (110 kW) of peak power, 103 lbs•ft of torque (140 Nm), a 18 kWh battery pack (running at 800 volts) that can be charged to 80% in 45 minutes with the onboard 20 kW charger, and a top speed of over 170 mph (275 km/h) at the Mugello track.
Not to over-use an Italian cliché, but that’s a spicy meatball, and close to what Ducati achieves with its Panigale V4 superbike.
A bit of a Christmas surprise landed in our inbox today, as the Ducati MotoE project is further along than expected, with their “V21L” prototype bike caught making laps at the Misano World Circuit.
The bike is the first iteration of what will be raced in the MotoE World Cup, starting in the 2023 season.
And while Ducati just announced its intent to takeover that series a few months ago, the Italian brand is clearly far from the beginning stages of that project.
Fresh off the news that Energica would be stepping down as the spec-supplier for the MotoE World Cup, today at Misano we learn who will be replacing the small Italian outfit: Ducati.
Energica is to withdraw as official manufacturer motorcycles for the MotoE class at the end of the 2022 season. After four years, MotoE will see something other than the Energica Ego Corsa machine being raced.
The MotoE class has been a qualified success since the class started back in 2019.
We get word today that electric motorcycle maker Energica will remain as the single-bike supplier for the FIM MotoE World Cup through the 2022 season.
That news is not too surprising, considering that Energica had a three-year contract with Dorna to supply bikes to the electric racing series, which included a clear technical roadmap from the Italian brand.
With the MotoE series effectively losing a year of development because of the coronavirus, it thus makes a bit of sense for Energica to remain on for an additional year.
I have been lucky in my career to ride some of the finest one-off electric motorcycles ever created. I was the first to ride the Mission R street bike from Mission Motors, and first of two journalists to swing a leg over the Isle of Man winning MotoCzysz E1pc.
I was the first to ride the Alta Redshift SM prototype, back when the company was still called BRD Motorcycles, one of only a handful of souls can lay claim to riding the Lightning LS-218 around a race track, and one of the first to swing a leg over the Energica Ego.
Coming to the Valencia track in Spain, I knew though that I would be adding another one of these special machines to my list, as Energica had invited Asphalt & Rubber to ride its MotoE race bike, the day after the Valencia GP.
Five flying laps on the Energica Ego Corsa is all that we would get this day at the Spanish track, which didn’t include our out-lap and in-lap, which I have to admit disappointed me.
Coming weekend, history will be made. For the first time, Grand Prix racing will welcome vehicles not powered by internal combustion engines, as the MotoE series makes its debut at the Sachsenring. It is the very first step on the long path toward a future where batteries replace burning hydrocarbons.
But the series got off to a rocky start, even before the first race. At the second test of the electric bike racing series, a fire started in the special tent containing all of the bikes, batteries, and chargers, destroying everything and wiping out the entire series in one fell swoop.
Since March, Nicolas Goubert, director of the MotoE series for Dorna, Energica, who build the spec electric bikes to be raced in the series, and Enel, who supply the charging technology to maintain the bikes, have worked at double speed to rebuild everything needed for the series, and get it ready for the inaugural race at the Sachsenring.
In Le Mans, I spoke at length to Goubert about the progress made in preparing the series, the challenges they had faced, and the lessons learned from the fire in Jerez. The fire highlighted some of the difficulties of an electric bike series, but just staging the series raises logistical and technical issues which nobody had foreseen.
Here is part 2 of the interview. If you want to read part 1, catch it here.
Coming weekend, history will be made. For the first time, Grand Prix racing will welcome vehicles not powered by internal combustion engines, as the MotoE series makes its debut at the Sachsenring. It is the very first step on the long path toward a future where batteries replace burning hydrocarbons.
But the series got off to a rocky start, even before the first race. At the second test of the electric bike racing series, a fire started in the special tent containing all of the bikes, batteries, and chargers, destroying everything and wiping out the entire series in one fell swoop.
Since March, Nicolas Goubert, director of the MotoE series for Dorna; Energica, who build the spec electric bikes to be raced in the series; and Enel, who supply the charging technology to maintain the bikes, have worked at double speed to rebuild everything needed for the series, and get it ready for the inaugural race at the Sachsenring.
In Le Mans, I spoke at length to Goubert about the progress made in preparing the series, the challenges they had faced, and the lessons learned from the fire in Jerez.
The fire highlighted some of the difficulties of an electric bike series, but just staging the series raises logistical and technical issues which nobody had foreseen.
Here is part 1 of the interview. Part 2 will follow tomorrow: