Touring, the quintessential long-distance motorcycle riding, has always been the weak spot for electric motorcycles. While e-motos excel in almost every other metric, they have lagged behind gas motorcycles when it comes to quick recharging required for extended journeys. However, the Californian e-motorcycle boutique Lightning Motorcycles has now unveiled the fastest charging electric motorcycle yet that they claim can rival gas motorcycles when refueling.
Lightning Motorcycles claims that its new fast-charging electric motorcycle can recharge nearly as quickly as a combustion engine motorcycle can refuel its tank. While the quickest DC fast-charging electric motorcycles to date have taken around 30 minutes for a nearly full battery recharge, Lightning claims it can achieve this in as little as 10 minutes using new fast-charging battery technology from Enevate.
The next-generation silicon-anode batteries from Enevate offer a much faster recharge time, which allows Lightning electric motorcycles to achieve a nearly full battery recharge in just 10 minutes. While this is still a bit longer than a gasoline fill-up, touring riders generally use fuel stops as an opportunity to stretch their legs after hours on a cramped bike. Therefore, a 10-minute refueling window is reasonable in the touring world.
Lightning has been testing a prototype of the system by using its Lightning Strike motorcycle outfitted with a 24 kWh battery from Enevate. In a video demonstration, Lightning pitted its prototype Lightning Strike against two other electric motorcycles, which are identified as a LiveWire One from Harley-Davidson and an SR/S from Zero Motorcycles.
The video shows that while the LiveWire One offers DC Fast Charging, the Zero SR/S is limited to slower Level 2 charging speeds. The three bikes are shown charging at the same time, and Lightning sets the finish line for the competition at 12 kWh of energy dumped into the batteries. The Lightning motorcycle crosses the 12 kWh mark first, achieving it in around 11 minutes, while the LiveWire manages to recharge only 3.3 kWh in that time, and the Zero only gets 1.1 kWh.
Watch the Electric Motorcycle Charging Race Between Lightning, LiveWire and Zero:
While Lightning has claimed to recharge from “0-80% in about 10 minutes,” the video shows the bike charging from 30-71% in 11 minutes. This is still impressively fast, and faster than any other electric motorcycle on the market today, but it falls a little short of the 10-minute fill-up claim. If Lightning can actually bring a bike to market with these charging specs, it will be a huge step forward for the industry.
See more at lightningmotorcycle.com
header image credit: Spenser Robert, lightningmotorcycle.com
FAQs
How fast is Lightning's new electric motorcycle at charging?
The lighning can charge upto 80% in a little over 13 minutes.
What are the issues for electric touring motorcycles?
Up to now, the relatively limited range and lengthy charging times have made it difficult to tour on electric motorcycles. However, recent advances in electric motorcycle battery technology is changing that.
