Ducati has taken the covers off its first-ever electric motorcycle, designed to be a contender for the 2023 MotoE season. The new prototype dubbed the ‘V21L’ keeps much of the Italian brand’s trademark design language, but gets new weight-saving carbon-fibre body panels.
The Ducati MotoE bike has a total weight of 225 kg, which is 12 kg less than the minimum requirements imposed by Dorna and FIM. The bike produces maximum power and torque figures of 150 bhp and 14.2 kgm respectively. It has also reportedly managed to reach speeds of 275 kph at the Mugello MotoGP circuit in Tuscany.
The battery pack weighs 110 kg and offers a capacity of 18 kWh with a 20-kW charging socket integrated into the tail. The battery can also charge up to 80 per cent of its range in just 45 minutes.
The braking system on the V21L is supplied by Brembo and is sized for the specific requirements of the Ducati MotoE. The suspension setup features an Öhlins NPX 25/30 pressurized fork with 43-mm diameter upside-down tubes at the front. The rear gets a fully adjustable Öhlins TTX36 shock absorber. The steering damper is an adjustable Öhlins unit too.
‘Racing competition represents the ideal terrain on which to develop innovative technologies that will transfer to production motorcycles. At this moment, the most important challenges in this field remain those related to the size, weight, autonomy of the batteries and the availability of the charging networks,’ says Vincenzo De Silvio, Ducati’s director of research and development.
