Electric cars make sense to me. Despite my own experiences with range anxiety, I think that 90% of everyone can get by perfectly well with an electric car. Electric motorcycles, though? To a guy that put 11,000 miles on a motorcycle a few summers ago and rode 25 plus miles each way, each day through a bitterly cold Chicago winter, though, the thought of having to stop a motorcycle ride short to spend even 20 or 30 minutes charging up seems more than a bit offensive. That’s why the world’s first all-electric touring bike definitely has my attention!
It’s called the STORM Pulse, and it was built by Eindhoven University students to cover 26,000 kilometers (about 16,000 miles) in just 80 days.
That’s a ton of miles to put on a bike in less than three months- and it’s made possible by a clever, multi cell battery pack that will push the STORM Pulse along at highway speeds for more than 200 miles per charge. That’s more than far enough to merit a rest stop, and it needn’t even be a long rest stop, since each of the 24 cells that make up the battery pack can be swapped independently for charging and service.
These Eindhoven guys are clever dudes, is what I’m saying- and their stated goal of running 16,000 miles in 80 days is just the beginning. The bike is expected to compete in 2017’s 80 Day Race, an event that starts in Paris in 2017 and would cover 40,000 all-electric kilometers (about 25,000 miles) over eight stages and 80 days.
On the STORM’s side? A 0-60 MPH time of less than 5.0 seconds, a 100 MPH top speed, and a battery pack that can be fully swapped out for a full charge in less than 10 minutes. You can check out some more pictures of the STORM Pulse electric touring bike, below, and head on over Electric Auto Sport for even more high-resolution photos. Enjoy!
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