ELON Musk, the billionaire owner of pioneering electric car maker Tesla, has ruled out the possibility of making a Tesla motorcycle.
The idea of a battery-powered bike under the Tesla banner has been floated before, and appears to make sense. Electric bikes are a fast-growing market, particularly in China, and the relative ease of type-approving a motorcycle in comparison to a car means they’re cheaper to develop.
With no need to pass stringent crash tests, it’s relatively easy for electric bike makers to react to changing battery technology, for instance. A car maker changing its battery chemistry would need to undergo recertification with all the expensive and time-consuming crash testing that involves.
But asked the question about electric motorcycles directly, Musk says it’s not going to happen.
At the firm’s 2018 shareholder meeting, an audience member commented on Musk’s leather jacket and asked: “Has Tesla ever thought about going into the motorcycle business?”
The 46 year old billionaire replied: “I actually used to ride motorcycles when I was kid, dirt-biking for like eight years or something. Then I had a road bike until I was 17, and was almost killed by a truck. So we’re not going to do motorcycles.”
