EICMA 2013: Tacita Launches Real Electric Dirtbikes

If you look at most electric motorcycles in the market today, you'll find their range quoted typically at about 2-300 km or about three hours duration. After that time you'll either need to recharge for about four hours or push your way home.

Until these distances improve, or there's a faster solution for replenishing the energy, electric motorcycles probably aren't the solution for touring or even weekend riding for most of us.

For other forms of riding, such as off-roading, that just might be good enough. KTM has been promising one for a couple of years now but Tacita, an Italian company, has beaten them to the punch as they showed their off-road machines at EICMA this year.

The name Tacita is that of the Roman Goddess of silence, and they sell their motorcycles as the Silent Motorcycle Revolution. Like all electric bikes, the Tacita runs quietly and is more ecologically friendly than a gasoline counterpart, but is also engineered using bio-materials. It's part of their commitment to be eco-friendly without sacrificing ride-ability.

Etienne Camens, responsible for distribution, showed us the three motorcycles in the range: The T-RC Cross motocrosser, T-RE Enduro and T-RR Rally. The primary difference between the three machines is the size (and weight) of the battery. The T-RC with just front batteries will last between 20-60 minutes (or about one typical race), while the T-RR with both front and rear batteries will last between 1 and 4 hours. The T-RE is somewhere in between.

That's not a huge amount of run-time, so Tacita have designed the Lithium- Polymer batteries to be switched in about ten minutes. It means you might need to own more than one set, but they've also designed a solar-powered trailer and their own chargers that makes that (and transporting your bike) simple. The Li-Po batteries are also lighter than just about anything else on the market and last for about 2000 charge cycles with no memory effect.

One major difference in design philosophy between Tacita and other electric motorcycle companies is the inclusion of a five-speed gearbox. This isn't some electronic frippery with paddle shifter - you get a proper hydraulic clutch connected to a mechanically geared gearbox. In other words, it's familiar. Tacita looked at the solutions in market and decided a geared transmission was essential for a dirt-bike. I, for one, agree.

The specifications would be impressive on a gasoline motorcycle: Ohlins suspension, Brembo brakes front and rear, Marzocchi forks. The battery and motor are also completely waterproof. While not quite amphibious, the motor could run in water just as deep as a gasoline bike could without the risk of the exhaust flooding or the engine becoming heat-starved and stalling. The power figures come in nicely, too. The engine is the same in each machine, and in sport mode will make about 40hp and deliver a massive 60Nm of torque.

As with some other electric bikes, you can use a smartphone app to see battery charge, remaining drive time and even change some parameters such as the level of regenerative braking and the drive mode. A nice touch is the smartphone "dashboard": the bars contain a waterproof, touch-sensitive compartment for your smartphone so you can see all this easily whilst riding if you want.

The machines shown are still prototypes though they are basically production specification and expect to be shipping Spring 2014, at least in Europe and you can order one today.

This level of quality isn't going to come cheap though. The range runs from 18,000 EU for the crosser to about 30,000 EU for the rally spec. That's about 1.5 times the cost of a similar gasoline machine. That sounds like a lot, but when you remember it will cost you pennies to run this thing and that engine servicing is effectively a thing of the past, the lifetime cost isn't that bad. And when you factor in the potential to start offering inner-city enduro trails and motocross parks, this is an idea that's ready for primetime.

For those of you interested in finding out more, Tacita do offer a two-day tour program where you can try out their bikes. You can find out more at Tacita's T-World