Ducati has unveiled one more electric scooter, the PRO-III, however its specs are nowhere close to the electric motorcycles that the corporate claims it can construct.
The Ducati PRO-III electric standing scooter is the corporate’s newest entry in an extended line of micromobility merchandise.
But like Ducati’s electric bicycles and different scooters, it is essentially constructed by different corporations that license Ducati’s model identify.
Ducati says that its new €799 PRO-III electric scooter is its most superior but, as the corporate defined:
PRO-III is probably the most technically superior scooter within the Ducati Urban e-mobility line, due to the connection to the Ducati Urban e-Mobility User App and the usage of the revolutionary NFC expertise. The e-scooter is supplied with a token that permits you to begin the scooter just by bringing it near the show, permitting the usage of the automobile solely to the proprietor in possession of the chip.
That NFC chip and the handlebar-mounted USB charging port for telephones and different gadgets seem like the one two main advances in comparison with electric scooters out there 3-4 years in the past. The remainder of the specs are largely equal to several-year-old tech.
The scooter reaches a prime pace of 15.5 mph (25 km/h), homes a 350W motor and features a battery pack with 468 Wh of capability.
Ducati claims that’s sufficient battery for 31 miles (50 km) of vary.
The new scooter unveiling is available in stark distinction to a different latest announcement from Ducati: It would be the sole provider of electric racing motorcycles for the MotoE racing collection beginning in 2023.
The information drew raised eyebrows as a result of the truth that Ducati doesn’t truly make any electric motorcycles, nor has the corporate appeared notably enthusiastic concerning the prospect.
The announcement got here simply days after fellow Italian bike producer Energica introduced that 2022 could be the final yr that its 150+ mph (241+ km/h) electric motorcycles could be used within the racing collection.
Ducati now has lower than two years to design, develop, and produce an electric bike. That growth cycle will certainly be helped by the truth that Ducati engineers at the moment are learning Energica’s bikes, as confirmed by Energica CEO Livia Cevolini:
It’s good that they’re going their very own means, regardless that I do know they’ve our bikes of their manufacturing unit that they’re learning.
Ducati has had fairly the on-again, off-again relationship with the thought of electric bike manufacturing over the previous few years.
In 2019, Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali made waves when he declared that “the future is electric,” and indicated that Ducati was engaged on a manufacturing electric bike that might be premiering comparatively quickly.
However, the corporate then backtracked on these statements and threw chilly water on the entire concept of Ducati producing electric motorcycles.
At the time, Ducati’s VP of world gross sales and member of the board Francesca Milicia defined that electric motorcycles weren’t within the firm’s plans:
Will we produce an electric Ducati quickly? No. We assume that for the type of machine we produce now, an electric bike can not assure the pleasure, the vary, the load, and many others., that Ducati riders anticipate.
Now Ducati appears to be again within the constructive column when it involves electric motorcycles. But if historical past is any lesson, one other about-face from the corporate wouldn’t come as a shock.
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