The FIM Enel MotoE World Cup will be supplied by Italian manufacturer Ducati from 2023 to 2026, inclusively.
Ducati comes to MotoE as the sole supplier, as the Italian manufacturer was announced to take on the racing series from 2023 to 2026, inclusively.
On October 19, 2021, Dorna made the first announcement that Energica, so far the sole supplier to the MotoE electric motorcycle racing series, would cease the agreement after the 2022 season. After Energica had a four-year contract, the announcement came as a huge surprise, leaving room to speculate who would take their spot as the MotoE series electric motorcycle provider.
Dorna quickly gave the announcement on a new provider, Ducati, the legendary Italian motorcycle marque set to become the single manufacturer for a new era of the FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup from 2023 to 2026.
During a special press conference held at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on Thursday, Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta revealed the new project with Ducati Motor Holding CEO Claudio Domenicali.
In a first and historic step for the Borgo Panigale motorcycle manufacturer who, historically, uses the MotoGP World Championship as a test bed for future technologies and solutions that become available to the entire motorcycle society, as the Ducati enters the world of electric bikes.
“We are very proud of this agreement because, like every first, it represents a historic moment for our company. Ducati is always focused towards the future and every time it enters a new world it does so aiming to create the best-performing product possible.
This agreement comes at the right time for Ducati, which has been studying electric powertrains for years, as it will allow us to develop within a controlled field: that of competition.
We will work to give every participant in the FIM MotoE World Cup a high-performance, electric motorcycle and one made to exemplify being lightweight.
Claudio Domenicali, CEO Ducati Motor Holding
Ducati’s new MotoE machine will be built by drawing on the principles of its racing DNA, in order to create a lightweight motorcycle that combines “tradition, passion, and innovation in a new era of electric competition”.
Claudio Domenicali, Ducati Motors’ CEO comments that weight will prove to be a great challenge, and having a legacy of light motorcycles is Ducati’s DNA. The company wishes to bring innovation and future-focused technologies which can eventually drive engineering for production models as well.
After years of applying their track innovation to their production models, for many ICE models, Ducati will take the path of bringing this innovation to the track for electric models as well, with a focus point on bringing down weight. This will be an interesting challenge to solve – as most of the weight comes from battery packs, rather then motor weight, whereas ICE motorcycles can save weight by efficiency of their motor and HP outputs.
“We are eager to see what the future has in store and continue to watch this technology develop and grow,” comments Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO Dorna Sports, “with the MotoGP paddock and MotoE continuing to drive innovation and evolution in the motorcycling industry – at the same time as creating an incredible on-track spectacle”.
Of course, a great gratitude to Energica for the role they had, from inception to growth of the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup. They have made an enormous contribution to making the series what it is today. Energica still has another season racing to take on in 2022, ahead of this new Ducati era.
Our Take:
Ducati will need to ramp up quickly to bring a production electric model (only teasers unveiled so far) that can satisfy the MotoE performance numbers from the previous Energica Corsa (track variant) in terms of HP and speed. As a matter of fact, Ducati so far only has an E-bike (bicycle) product line, but nothing that requires a license. This will be the first Ducati sport bike to be fully electric.
We can definitely trace back how the company has planned for this milestone for quite some time, and now Ducati feels that the time is right to put their research and development to work for more electric models in the company’s future. It makes it all that more interesting to see what performance stats the electric Ducati will bring to the tarmac.
The announcement shows Ducati has big targets for their electric motorcycle, and have been investing several years in R&D for powertrains in order to bring that into reality. It remains unclear when we will get a first glance at the electric Ducati, and we can’t wait to get the news to you.