Modena, Italy based high-performance electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica reported record first half 2018 sales with turnover 500% increased over the first 6 months of 2017 and is already double their last full year income. Driven by the profile brought by it being selected as the ‘Spec’ bike for the 2019 FIM Enel MotoE World Cup, the Ego is their best seller. Sales have been growing “all over the world with particular success in Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Sales of electric motorcycles and scooters in France more than doubled in 2017 to 5,451 units, thanks in large part to the introduction of a € 1,000 government incentive scheme. The sector is dominated by moped scooters, with BMW’s C-evolution E-scooter topping the “big boys” chart and Zero leading the electric motorcycle sector.
Autotalks, an Israel based developer of V2X (Vehicle to Everything) communication chipsets, has joined founding members BMW, Honda, Yamaha and other motorcycle manufacturers such as KTM, Ducati, Kawasaki and Suzuki in the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC) – the consortium is working towards establishing a viable common platform to enhance Cooperative-Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) for motorcycles that integrate with other vehicles.
BMW is investing € 200m in what it describes as a “battery cell competence centre” with the intention of exploring new battery architectures. The company is on record as saying that it plans to be using game-changing solid-state battery technology in at least some vehicles by 2026.
