In case you have not heard about it, Governor Inslee approved the Move Ahead Washington Transportation Package requiring all vehicles with a model year of 2030 sold in Washington state to be electric vehicles. That is less than 8 years from now.
Recently Can-Am announced plans for an electric motorcycle that could be available as soon as 2024. Harley-Davidson made news a few years ago with the announcement of its LiveWire electric motorcycle. The documentary film Charge, released in 2011, took place on the Isle of Man TT course June 12, 2009, and changed motorsports history. It was the first zero-emissions motorcycle grand prix. Long Way Up is another series that follows Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman on custom Harley-Davidson LiveWire bikes as they travel across the world.
Alta, an off-road all electric start up, considered the best electric off-road motorcycle on the market, was burning though money quickly. To save the company, it tried to broker a deal with Harley-Davidson before it went bankrupt. Harley-Davidson delayed so long that Alta went bankrupt, so they wanted a lower valuation. Alta backed out.
To save the company, as a last ditch, Alta contacted Can-Am’s parent company BRP. BRP, on the verge of bankruptcy, wanted nothing to do with the cash drain that Alta would have been. After the BRP purchases Alta’s remaining assets, and intellectual property. Knowing it could never use those assets due to the legal quagmire that could take place, Can-Am was forced to engineer its own solution from scratch.
Using what it learned from Alta, it took six years and produced four bikes instead of one scheduled for release in 2024. It appears that two will be cruisers, one will be a mid-sized upright, and one a tall enduro/adventure bike.
Like it or not electric vehicles are going to be part of the future of motorcycling. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.
Yet, there’s no denying it: Unless you plan to ride exclusively around the Southern United States, you’ll face some chilly winters. And even before it...
