Ducati Holds Off on Electric Motorcycles for Consumers Despite Industry Trends

Ducati, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer, is holding off on launching an electric motorcycle for the consumer market, making it an outlier in Volkswagen AG’s €89 billion ($94 billion) push to electrify its businesses. While the company is the sole producer of e-bikes racing in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup this year and presented its first electric motorcycle prototype in June, the CEO of Ducati’s North American operations, Jason Chinnock, says that the battery technology needs to improve before the company can bring an e-bike to showrooms. “It’s going to be some years,” Chinnock said. “The battery technology really isn’t there.”

Ducati’s decision to hold off on the launch of an electric motorcycle puts it at odds with Volkswagen’s focus on batteries for electric passenger cars and rival Harley-Davidson’s launch of the LiveWire in 2019. Harley even spun off its electric motorcycle division last year, merging it with a special purpose acquisition company to form LiveWire Group Inc.

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The motorcycle industry is feeling the impact of electrification, although the transition is uneven. While Honda Motor Co. recently announced plans to roll out at least 10 electric models worldwide by 2025, BMW AG has so far only unveiled concept bikes.

Ducati is one of the four brands under Volkswagen’s premium group that shares research and production resources. The company is exploring alternative fuels and other technologies to reduce its carbon footprint, but it will take time to perfect an electric motorcycle for the consumer market. “There isn’t a consumer bike directly in development because this is still so early,” Chinnock said. “It’s really going to take battery tech to evolve.”

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“Once that is evolved to the point where it makes sense for us to integrate it in, where we can address performance and range and weight, that’s the trifecta,” Chinnock said. “It still needs to be distinctly a Ducati.” For now, Ducati remains committed to racing in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup and is keeping a close eye on battery technology developments before making its move into the electric motorcycle market.