Kidding about Cancellara, he doesn’t need any help in riding fast. This new model Brammo is an interesting motorbike, though – 160km/h performance and 160km range. Coupled with an electric motor’s “instant-on” torque delivery it would be more than tempting, I should think. If you didn’t want to stick with pedalling, of course.
Brammo’s second-generation electric motorcycle: the Empulse 10.0 streetfighter
“We thought, well, the average commute is 26 miles, so a 42 mile range should give you comfort. Well it turns out that when it gets to half full, people fill it up. Some people like me take it all the way down to the end. We’re finding with electric vehicles that people are more conservative.”
Despite range concerns, the bike became a modest success – but Brammo never expected it to find an audience among the petrolhead community. “We kinda thought the Harley guys and the Ducati guys would not be that crazy about it,” says Bramscher, “Turns out they loved the Enertia, they just want a little more.”
The 2011 Brammo Empulse
And more they will get. “The driving force around this vehicle was some new technology we’ve developed in the powertrain,” says Bramscher, “which is an all-around system that includes a more efficient battery and a more efficient controller, a more efficient motor and then our own vehicle control unit. So it’s really a full Brammo drivetrain. And that, in combination with the battery technology, gets us all the way up to a 100-mile average range.
Kidding about Cancellara, he doesn’t need any help in riding fast. This new model Brammo is an interesting motorbike, though – 160km/h performance and 160km range. Coupled with an electric motor’s “instant-on” torque delivery it would be more than tempting, I should think. If you didn’t want to stick with pedalling, of course.
Brammo’s second-generation electric motorcycle: the Empulse 10.0 streetfighter
“We thought, well, the average commute is 26 miles, so a 42 mile range should give you comfort. Well it turns out that when it gets to half full, people fill it up. Some people like me take it all the way down to the end. We’re finding with electric vehicles that people are more conservative.”
Despite range concerns, the bike became a modest success – but Brammo never expected it to find an audience among the petrolhead community. “We kinda thought the Harley guys and the Ducati guys would not be that crazy about it,” says Bramscher, “Turns out they loved the Enertia, they just want a little more.”
The 2011 Brammo Empulse
And more they will get. “The driving force around this vehicle was some new technology we’ve developed in the powertrain,” says Bramscher, “which is an all-around system that includes a more efficient battery and a more efficient controller, a more efficient motor and then our own vehicle control unit. So it’s really a full Brammo drivetrain. And that, in combination with the battery technology, gets us all the way up to a 100-mile average range.
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