Like it or not, ‘electric’ is the buzzword (geddit?) at the moment in the motorcycle industry as manufacturers - even Ducati - grapple with the notion it will need to plug into a planet-friendly movement in the next decade or so.
Indeed, while the idea of electric Hondas, Yamahas and Kawasakis will inevitably make many prospective owners a little light-headed, for those loyal to a firm like Ducati, the prospect of a Panigale-type model with electrons coursing through it mechanical veins will be particularly head-jamming.
If that is the case then we have some potentially good and/or potentially bad news for you here in the form of this rather interesting Ducati-badged concept from Italdesign.
Bad news: Well, this is an electric-powered Ducati
Good news: If this is what a future electric powered Ducati will look like, then perhaps it is not all bad
Style is subjective of course and for many - based on the comments we receive from you out there - even the most beautiful motorcycle in the world wouldn’t appeal if you had to plug it in at night, but putting the foreign terms as range, recharge time and kilowatts aside, this project commissioned by Ducati is certainly eye-catching.
Created by Italdesign Giugiaro, the design house has been responsible for mostly four-wheel models over time, penning models as diverse as the Lotus Esprit, the Bugatti EB112, the original VW Golf and even the Fiat Punto. However, it has tried its hand at two-wheels before, most notably on the curious Rotary-engined Suzuki RE5 of the 1970s.
Fittingly, Italdesign has delved into history books to bring us this model, which is a re-imagining of the Ducati 860 - dubbed the Ducati 860 E-Concept - and it has done a fairly faithful job of blending the classic retro silhouette with something more ‘neo’.
The front-end blends the original with something bearing similarity to the new Monster, plus a hint of Scrambler, while the gilled side panels both throwback to the original while also diverting some attention away from the fairly sizeable battery housing, which itself has been carved so as to appear less ‘chunky’.
Other Ducati signatures are in evidence, such as the single-sided swingarm and upside down fork, while it’s finished in a pleasing blend of Ducati scarlet, chrome and gold, plus some retro typeface.
We can assume this has been commissioned by Ducati itself and should perhaps be seen as a very tentative, tenuously-associated toe in the water in an attempt to gauge reaction.
As such, it is not a stretch to imagine this could form the basis of a future electric-powered Ducati, or at the very least give us an idea of which segment the Borgo Panigale firm will target when it does decide to get charged.
