We are at a time when, seen from a few years ago, most motorcycles should be electric and, nevertheless, not only that has not happened, but the electrification announced to hype and dish comes with drops, and if it arrives. Because big brands right now do not have a wide range of motorcycles, and only Honda has a public plan in that regard.
And if this happens it is for something, and that something has made it clear BMW Motorrad’s CEO in an interview with Common Tread. The Austrian Markus Flasch, who is 44 years old and, therefore, does not have an age bias that avoids thinking about romantic conservatism instead of business logic, he spoke clearly about the company’s plans among which they do not seem to find neither the non -scooters’ own electric motorcycles, which we have recently seen, nor those of motocross.
At the bottom of the matter, it is only a market issue, because the reality is that today the electric motorcycles do not fit between the general public and BMW, like the rest of the companies, they need to sell motorcycles to survive. The striking thing in this case is that the German manufacturer has it relatively simple as far as technology is concerned, because the cars has all the technology developed and even have electric scooters with which it is satisfied. Even so, it is clear: “At the moment, we do not see a real demand for an electric motorcycle.”
Something similar happens with the Motocross world and that is that although we have recently seen how Ducati and Triumph have entered, the British even with enduro versions, the reality is that it is not a segment that really has a specific weight and, therefore, they do not plan to follow that address.
Neither electric, nor cross, but perhaps a sports one less than 1,000 cc
Of course, where they are considering taking a step it can be in sports of less than 1,000 cubic centimeters, although he said that: “You can expect to see something smaller than the 1000 cc. But it is a bit soon to talk about it”. This can give a clue that in the relatively close future we could have an intermediate sportsman of the German brand and, perhaps, opting for some of the bicylindrical motorizations that they already have in the market like the one used, for example, the F 900 XR.
In any case, these statements leave the following issue in the air: Will the motorcycle industry be bet on electric motorcycles or will it only do it for city models? Time will say it.
