It had to come eventually: the first article on electric bikes on this site prompted by a recent announcement by Vmoto, a China-based electric scooter and motorcycle manufacturer. They have revealed that Ducati has signed a licensing agreement with the company to produce a Ducati electric scooter.
![](https://classicowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/supersoco-cu-scooter.png)
The CUx electric scooter has so far been marketed under the Super SOCO brand. Vmoto is the parent company of Super SOCO. It features a 2.8 kW (3.75 hp) Bosch hub motor and top speed of 45 km/h (28 mph). Not exactly fast, but great for city/suburbs trips.The scooter has a 1.8 kWh battery pack that offers up to 75 km of range. The scooter also includes a front facing camera that can be used as an action camera for social media sharing or as a dash cam.
Then Erik Buell unveiled his new electric motorcycle brand which promises a futuristic-looking motorcycle, the Fuell Flow which can put out 35 kW (47 hp) of power and is likely to appeal more to the likes of motorcyclists.
![](https://classicowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/fuell-flow-1024x576.jpg)
Charging is said to be 30 minutes on a 20 kW public charger, but I haven’t seen any specifications on the expected kilometre range.
The Flow appears to lack a foot brake but also has an empty left bar where a rear hand brake would otherwise rest, meaning a single right brake lever might control the hydraulic disc brake in the front and regenerative braking in the rear. Fuell indicates that the Flow should start at US$10,995.
Coming out of Lyons, France, Essence Motorcycles is making a massively powerful, long-range e-streetfighter with eye-popping looks and performance so extreme it’s actually hard to imagine. This one is my favourite – the Essence e-Raw – 205 HP motor with 450 Nm of torque! (My Triumph Street Triple 675 produces about 105HP & 68Nm of torque and scrubs out a rear tyre every 6,000-6,500kms). Essence claims 0-100 km/h in the range of 2.8 seconds, and it’s geared for a road-friendly top speed of 200 km/h, it weighs 194kg . Hope you’ve got enough dough to pay for the tyres this thing will likely chew up.
![](https://classicowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/electric-concept.jpg)
![](https://classicowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/essence-e-raw-signature-5.jpg)
Realistically, we’re likely to see only the scooter bike for sale in Australia. I’m guessing that the big question mark for Australian buyers will be the range before a battery recharge is required. When that figure is around the 300km range, I’ll be interested. I also think that a variable sound effects unit should be available, where you can program what noise your electric bike can make, if any.
Finally, I forgot this one – it’s a Zero and I’m not even sure that they are sold in this country any more. I snapped this one in the main street of Lobethal back in 2017.
![](https://classicowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Zero-1024x576.jpg)
I’ve just stumbled across Electric Motorcycle News on Facebook and found these pictures of the latest Zero being road tested in Europe recently.
![](https://classicowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/zero2.jpg)
![](https://classicowners.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/zero3.jpg)