Finance

Electric motorcycles rev up design and performance (w/photos)

Manufacturers are raising the performance bar for electric motorcycles, rapidly catching up to their gas-guzzling counterparts. Here are five battery-powered machines guaranteed to turn heads.

Written by Chris Jablonski, Inactive Aug. 12, 2011 at 10:32 a.m. PT

As an enthusiast of motorcycles (I own two) and a resident of the Bay Area, I've noticed a surge in buzz surrounding electric two-wheelers and I'm not alone. Reporting today on the recent unveiling of Red Shift, an all-electric "supermoto" from San Francisco start-up BRD Motorcycles, Jeanne Carstensen at the New York Times, writes; "With Mission Motors, also in San Francisco, and Zero Motorcycles in Santa Cruz, as well as others, the region is becoming a hub for electric motorcycle companies."

Speaking of Mission Motors, the company made history a few weeks ago at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. The company's race bike, Mission R, posted a qualifying time of 1:31.3, the fifth fastest for the weekend’s AMA Supersport race, and a track record for an electric vehicle of any kind. Motorcycle traditionalists were left scratching their heads.

As the performance of electric motorcycles closes in on their gas-guzzling counterparts, they're also becoming increasingly practical and cost-effective. The market for electric scooters and motorcycles is taking off worldwide with about a half a billion in use across the globe by 2016, estimates Pike Research.

For whatever shortfalls exist today with electric motorcycles, such as a max ranges that peak out between 60 - 100 miles and the lack of a gas engine growl, manufacturers are wasting no time compensating with designs and technology that could permanently impact both, motorcycling industry and culture.