QJMotor electric hints at Benelli future
Benelli has been rather quiet over the last couple of years, despite motoring to the top of Italy's motorcycle sales charts with the TRK502. However, the company's Chinese sister brand - QJMotor - gives an insight into the direction that Benelli might take and has recently revealed the QJ7000D electric sports bike.
QJMotor, like Benelli, is a subsidiary of Qianjiang, and in turn part of the vast Geely Group that also owns big names like Volvo and Lotus, and is Harley-Davidson's partner in China. So far, QJMotor's range of bikes - aimed at the growing Chinese market for high-end machines - have been heavily based on Benelli designs, but with the QJ7000D, the technology transfer could go in the other direction.
The name, dull though it is, is an informative one. Chinese electric bikes are numbered by their rated output in watt, so the QJ7000D is officially a 7 kW offering. That might not seem like much - 7 kW is just 9.4 bhp - but electric motors are usually capable of more than their rated outputs, and QJMotor says the QJ7000D actually puts out 10 kW (13.4 bhp), to put it right into the 125 cc arena.
With the electric bike market largely split into two categories - ultra-expensive machines that try to rival petrol bikes for performance at one end, super cheap, low-performance scooters at the other - the QJ7000D doesn't have many obvious rivals as a 125-class sports bike, and it separates itself more by opting for unusual tech for an electric bike.
Check out the levers and foot controls and you'll see there's a conventional clutch, gear-shifter and foot-operated back brake as opposed to the twist-and-go operation that most electric bikes adopt. Gears and a clutch are usually redundant on electric bikes, with a couple of exceptions including the now-dead Brammo models and Kymco's planned RevoNEX, but they add a level of control that's appealing to riders who want to interact more with their machines.
Although the QJ7000D's shape is relatively conventional, its battery-powered design means it's very different under the skin. The 'tank' is actually just a cover over a helmet-sized storage area in the front, with the batteries and electronics sitting further down behind the fairing sides.
Initial performance claims include a 65 mph top speed and a 62-mile range, which doesn't sound like much, but could be alleviated if the QJ7000D is capable of fast-charging or has a battery-swap capability - two elements that haven't yet been revealed. The battery itself is a 72V, 60Ah pack, and although QJMotor has yet to reveal production plans for the bike, it's clearly not far from being a viable proposition as a showroom model.
Whether Benelli will adopt the bike, or a variation of it, for the European market remains to be seen, but with Husqvarna entering the 125 cc-class electric market with the upcoming E-Pilen, and several other European companies also showing an increasing interest in the same idea, it would be an instant shortcut for the Italian brand.
