Nearly half the bike's total curb weight is in its battery.
On June 30, 2022, Ducati officially presented its new 2023 MotoE bike, the V21L, at a very small and exclusive event in Modena. Only a handful of European media members were invited to Casa Maria Luigia (which is chef Massimo Bottura’s B&B) for the event—but now they get to tell the rest of us all about it.
From what we can tell by looking at the photos, the V21L presented earlier this morning looks very much like the V21L prototype that Ducati has been testing. The livery is, of course, a bit different and more refined. Some of the carbon fiber is covered, while some is left exposed to show off its glorious and unique grain, as a fairly inimitable visual texture our eyes can feast upon.
The red line graphics against matte black/dark gray successfully evoke a feeling of electricity in your mind—a sure sign of successful visual communication. Ducati’s V21L design looks, first and foremost, like a Ducati—and the immediate visual cues don’t scream “electric motorbike” in the way that we’re used to from other entries in the genre. Still, even someone who didn’t know what the V21L was before looking at it might suspect its nature just by seeing those graphics.
What else did those in attendance learn about Ducati’s MotoE bike? This first-gen version apparently weighs a stonking 225 kilograms—or just a hair over 496 pounds. Much of that weight comes from the 110 kg (approximately 242.5 pound) battery, which is an 18 kWh unit specially designed to fit this bike and connect directly to the swingarm. German publication Speedweek, which attended this event, quotes Ducati as saying it can reach 80 percent of a full charge in just 45 minutes. (Presumably that’s via DC fast charging, although that detail was not specified.)
What about power? Peak is a claimed 110 kW, or approximately 150 horsepower. It’s able to complete the required seven laps of a GP track that Dorna wants for its MotoE races, but Ducati doesn’t want to talk about lap times just yet. Fair enough—it just gives interested parties something to look forward to with the 2023 MotoE season, doesn’t it?
Keyword: Ducati Pulls The Covers Off Its 2023 MotoE V21L Bike In Modena