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Electric MotoGP Class Called MotoE to Begin in 2019

Categories: Motorcycles | Off-Road & Dirt Bikes | Cruisers

Author: Eric Brandt

A lot of people still associate electric vehicles with being slow and boring like golf carts, but recent advancements in EVs in all shapes and sizes have made for some incredible, high-performance machines. In order to demonstrate this, FIM is organizing an electric motorcycle racing MotoGP class called MotoE set to begin this year.

This new class won't quite have the same size and scope as MotoGP in its inaugural 2019 season. It will only consist of five Sunday races with 18 motorcycles competing. Like MotoGP, there will be two lower tiers of MotoE in Moto2 and Moto3 classes. Seven private teams will have two motorcycles per team and four more will be used in the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.

Due to the range constraints of electric motorcycles, especially in racing when they're being pushed to their limits, these races will be very short. They'll only be 10 laps long. They could be longer than that, but FIM probably doesn't think anyone would want to watch a race where riders are babying their bikes to squeeze out the most possible range.

As for the actual motorcycle, every bike in MotoE will be an Energica EgoGP which is a race-tuned version of the Ego production sport bike. Thanks to its racing tune, the EgoGP's AC electric motor will squeeze out two more horsepower than the street bike its based on giving it 147 hp and a top speed of 155 mph.

It will likely be a while until electric motorcycles can compete on the same level as MotoGP bikes, but this is an exciting development none the less. Electric motorcycles have a ton of performance potential and we can't wait to see what the future holds for them on the track.

MotoE won't quite have the same size and scope as MotoGP in its inaugural 2019 season. It will only consist of five Sunday races with 18 motorcycles competing. Like MotoGP, there will be two lower tiers of MotoE in Moto2 and Moto3 classes. Seven private teams will have two motorcycles per team and four more will be used in the Moto2 and Moto3 classes.

Published Mar 7th, 2019