As electric mobility technology increases, many people wonder when electric motorcycles will be competitive with their internal combustion counterparts. For the most part, charging times and range are the key parameters that people voice concerns about. If riders are to adopt electric mobility en masse, electric motorcycles will have to compare well to internal combustion ones.

Recently,Visor Down interviewed Energica’s CEO Livia Cevoline and Giampiero Testoni. During the interview, they spoke about the electric motorcycle marketplace and the issues facing electric mobility. And the two execs feel quite good about the outlook for electric motorcycles.

Electric motorcycle technology is growing quickly

Particularly interesting is Testoni’s belief that electric motorcycle technology is increasing quickly. And he believes that electric motorcycles are not far off from being directly competitive with their gasoline-powered counterparts.

When asked when the range and recharging time would be on par with gasoline-powered motorcycles, Testoni said:

“From a technical point of view, charge, and range, let’s say that charging, we believe we were one of the first to believe in fast charging. Of course, there was already a Japanese standard, but we were the first to start on a European standard, enabling charging to 80 percent in half an hour. In real use, when you stop for refuelling, you go and drink some coffee, 20-minutes, it’s very easy to reach that target.”

“The technology for rapid charging is already there, the battery cells that are already capable to charge in 15-minutes, some technology for seven to ten minutes. The 15-minutes to 85% is just around the corner. And then the refuelling in five minutes to recharging in 15-minutes, the difference then is very small.”

”,另一方面,范围。骑摩托车带着哟u can’t have that huge space for batteries. Now we have the 21.5kWh batteries, this is very close to what a petrol motorcycle does in real use.” –Giampiero Testoni to Visor Down

Electric motorcycle range and charging

For example, Energica claims that its 21.5 kWh Ego+ model has a range of 249 miles (400 km) in the city and a combined range of 143 miles (180 km). As for recharging, Energica provides its charge rates in kilometers per hour or kilometers per minute.

Using DC Fast Charge Mode 4, Energica says that you can get about 250 miles (400 km) of charge in an hour or about 4.1 miles (6.7 km) per minute. When using “Slow Charge Mode 2 or 3,” the bike’s charging rate drops to about 40 miles (63.5 km) per hour.

But even these rates don’t compare to what Testoni says is just around the corner. That is; full charging in 15 minutes.

Ready to make the jump?

So if what Testoni says becomes true for charging and range stays at about 250 miles per charge, would you be prepared to make the jump to electric motorcycles? Let us know in the comments below.