It is reported that MV Agusta is planning to bring back its Cagiva brand as an E-Bike, possibly as early as for the 2019 model year, with an announcement later this year at EICMA.
Japanese E-Bike manufacturer Mugen will race three Shinden Nana electric Superbikes at the Isle of Man TT Zero race as they go in search of a fifth straight and seventh overall win – with 2018 improvements said to include reduced mass and increased capacity as the performance of lithium-ion batteries gets ever better with less mass and greater capacity.
Less than 5 percent of the vehicles on Europe’s roads are “commercial vehicles” (vans, trucks etc) but estimates suggest that nearly 20 percent of European greenhouse gas emissions from all vehicles are from “commercials”.
It is reported that Bosch has invented a “carbon neutral” synthetic hydrocarbon based fuel. It is likely to be some time before the chemistry involved proves to be scalable or for production of sufficient quantities to be commercially viable, but should it prove to be so it could take the transport emissions debate in an additional new direction.
BRP is introducing a first Rotax electric powerpack for the Karting market – a high performance 2.5kwh lithium-ion battery with a top performance of 20 kW and 46 Nm for a top speed of 130 km/h and o-100 km/h of 3.5 seconds.
The sectors of the Brammo electric vehicle business that were not bought by Polaris five years ago, which includes the ‘Empulse RR’ e-bike of IOM and Pikes Peak derring do fame, has been bought by Diesel engine manufacturer Cummins. Cummins CEO and Chairman Tom Lineberger is a non-executive Director on the board of Harley-Davidson.
