First Ducati electric race bike will be seen in action from 2023 onwards. But more importantly, lot of its character will go to Ducati’s future road-going bikes…
In October 2021, Ducati and Dorna Sports (commercial rights holder of MotoGP, MotoE, WSBK and other championships) announced their partnership. With this Ducati will become the single manufacturer for the new era of FIM Enel MotoE World Cup from 2023-2026. This announcement was made through a special press conference at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, attended by Ducati Motor Holding CEO Claudio Domenicali and Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta.
At the event, Ducati expressed their intentions that the machines for the new era of MotoE will be purpose built from the principles of Ducati’s racing DNA. Focus will be on creating a lightweight motorcycle that unites tradition and innovation for a new era of electric competition in the MotoGP paddock.
Now, two months later, Ducati’s MotoE bike made its first laps around the very circuit where the announcement had taken place – Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
The electric motorcycle prototype, code-named “V21L” – created by the joint work of the Ducati Corse team and the Ducati R&D engineers, led by Roberto Canè (Ducati eMobility Director) – was taken out on the track by Michele Pirro (professional rider and Ducati test rider since 2013) to evaluate the technical characteristics and potential of Ducati’s first electric motorcycle.
Ducati says the most important challenges in the development of an electric racing motorcycle, by their understanding, is related to the size, weight and range of the batteries. Ducati’s goal is to make electric motorcycles that are high-performance and characterized by their lightness available to all FIM Enel MotoE World Cup participants.
The focus of their project are, in addition to better performance, the containment of weight and the consistency of power delivery during the race, which they claim to have achieved thanks to the attention in the development of a cooling system suitable for the objective.
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Roberto Canè, Ducati eMobility Director has said,
“We are experiencing a truly extraordinary moment. I find it hard to believe it is reality and still not a dream! The first electric Ducati on the track is exceptional not only for its uniqueness but also for the type of undertaking: challenging both for its performance objectives and for its extremely short timescales. Precisely for this reason, the work of the whole team dedicated to the project has been incredible and today’s result repays us for the efforts made in recent months. We are certainly not finished yet; indeed, we know that the road ahead is still very long, but in the meantime, we have laid a first important ‘brick’.”
Ducati has also announced their ambitions that their experience in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup will be a fundamental support for their future product’s R&D. Their goal is to create, as soon as the technology allows them, a Ducati electric vehicle for road use that is sporty, light, exciting and able to satisfy all enthusiasts.
