Why is Team Red Bypassing Sales for the V2L to hit the MotoE paddock?
When Energica stepped down from MotoE and Ducati decided to step in as the electric track’s official bike supplier, the company was racing the clock – after all, they committed to racing for 2023, so that left this year to solidify their electric prototype and hit the ground running.
Since the expedited production of their electric ‘V2L’ prototype, however, it seems Team Red is on schedule for an emission-free MotoE series next year – and now we’re wondering.
With sales at Ducati higher than they have ever been before, why not capitalize on the times and make the electric bike available to the Ducatisti of the world?
Source: Cycle News
Good money would be had, for the success the Italian motorcycle manufacturer has experienced in this year alone would guarantee wild sales numbers for a new electric unit – let alone what their new position at MotoE would do for advertisement.
So why put the MotoE track first?
Jason Chinnock, Ducati’s CEO, has a clever answer for this, and it has to do with the changes machines undergo when improving at the track.
“What better way to prove this technology than on the race track, which is actually where we proved the technology that finds its way to all of our street motorcycles as well,” Chinnock says frankly to Yahoo! Finance.
“The (MotoE) championship is going to give us that opportunity because the challenges that we typically face in the world of motorcycling, when it comes to the electric platform, are weight and range.”
Source: Ultimate Motorcycling
“The difference is we have a much smaller platform [compared to cars], and we have only one direction to go for the batteries, and that’s up,” Chinnock continues.
“We had to make sure that we can find a solution for it, and this motorcycle — not only do we believe that we’re going to draw a lot of attention and people to this series, but it’s going to give us a platform for us to be able to bring product out to the market in the future as well.”
In short, it’s a new bike – and new bikes usually need to be tweaked more often.
Setting the electric machine on the track means that there will now be a two-fold reason for fixing problems, improving performance, and working on the durability of the newer components, such as the battery, electronics, etc.
There’s another clever reason; winning on day one and selling in dealerships day two would ramp the sale up even higher – and with Ducati providing all of the bikes that will be present at MotoE, that means sky-high sales each time a bike crosses the finish line.
Source: HiConsumption
We will keep you updated on anything else that comes our way down the pipeline; in the meantime, be sure to brush up on other newsies hitting the stacks today, and as always – stay safe on the twisties.
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