It’s been a very long time since I couldn’t wait for daylight to appear and ride this particular new motorcycle in the cool, fresh morning air. Oh yes, twitching and tossing (pardon the term) under the sheets in anticipation of riding the most accomplished and powerful electric motorcycle I’ve seen to date. So, while it was still dark, I fed myself on coffee whilst admiring the quality and attention-grabbing bright green ‘tree-like’ light glowing in the middle of the tank cover.
Why didn’t you ride it the day before then you ask? Because we were allowed to drink face-warming beverages for the first time since the confusing lockdown regulations and this ‘thing’ will currently cost R560,000 with our diabolical exchange rate, so thanks Mr. Government for that. Therefore, slurring conversations took preference I’m afraid, instead of frightful scenarios.
Anyway, the sun came up and with 100% power I ‘whirred’ out of the complex with this claimed 270kg beauty with a certain amount of anxiety, wouldn’t you? Energica claim 145hp and 200Nm, and one gear, so this should be fun. Within 200m I was totally in love and wanted one and ignored the price, it doesn’t matter with a hand-built unique machine like this. In fact, a new Toyota Rav4 will cost over 500k and a new Golf, yes Golf, GTI close to 700k, and there’s a guy here who spent over 32-bar on a Bugatti Veyron, so who cares about the cost for something so special. 
But I most certainly ‘cared’ about the predictable performance. Nothing I’ve ever ridden makes you smile, grin, and chuckle more than this wealth of torque. It doesn’t come in with a bang because the programmers from Italy have made it soft off the line, then a relentless surge pushes you in the back all the way to an indicated 212km/h. A bit like the ‘surge’ when taking off in a jet plane, or the first mouth-opening drop on a world-class rollercoaster, see where I’m coming from? And it does it every time without fuss or complaint, finding yourself looking at speeds, that shouldn’t be allowed on the professional clocks, in a matter of seconds. 
With no clutch or gears it’s incredibly easy to ride, not forgetting it’s impossible to stall. So, through traffic it couldn’t be an easier bike to use, just cover the back brake a little to assist with threading between the stagnant vehicles. Then once clear, and with a quick twist, you’re off again towards torque heaven.
Now here’s a thing, the noise! Let me just shout a bit here because I got quite defensive with this Energica. People seemed to want to be critical and slap it down. Two things were always asked; the range obviously, and no one can hear you coming so it’s dangerous. What a load of irritating garbage that last statement is, can you hear a new hyper-quiet Honda Goldwing coming? I doubt it, so wtf! As for the noise, this thing is loud in a stunning jet turbine style scream and many people turn around long before you get to them, so the sound thing is a load of bollocks you disbelieving fools. I think it’s all down to jealousy in the end, so go cry and moan somewhere else, NOT near me!
Now to the range, which was a bit on the low side, but you don’t buy a Veyron and moan about fuel consumption, right? If you ride it in the Sport mode (one of four, with Eco, Urban and Rain), and ride it hard, which is hard not to, you’ll be pushed to get 100km, twice that if you calm down and release the stifled power in Urban mode. Don’t care it’s worth the rush, and from 8% battery to full 100% it took around four hours, or 30 minutes with a fast-charger, which is appearing throughout SA as I write.
Now here’s the thing, this battery is already out of date. Yes, the Energica engineers who prepare these bikes for the Moto-e series have thrown this current battery into the bin. It’s a 13kw item and, if you choose to buy one of these, your bike will have a new 21kw battery, doubling the range and delivering even more power -tremendous!
Coming from the race bred bike this ‘naked’ Eva model also has top of the range Ohlins suspension and World Superbike Brembo callipers, which is a good thing with its inherent weight, no more than a fully laden GS1250 though, so not too bad, I think. As expected, batteries will become lighter in the future, remember the first cell phones with a ‘suitcase’ battery, and now look where we are?
So the running components are superb and this Eva has the best set-up Ohlins I’ve come across. Not ‘plank-hard’ like it tends to be, but perfect damping and spring choice, well done Energica and my spine loves you.
Let’s go back to power outputs and performance again. I took the Eva to our Dynojet dyno to see how close their 145hp claim is, we couldn’t get torque though because of no rpm/coil pick-up. What we did get was 144.25hp in 3.6 seconds from when you open the throttle, now that’s impressive. Their 145hp is claimed from the motor, so once it’s driven the gearbox, chain drive, and wheel on the dyno drum, that figure is probably higher. Either way it’s a lot, and no bike in the world has an easier way to access all of that power so easily and all of the time. It does drop off a bit when below 50% to conserve battery life and to get you home. Oh, once home and the power is off with load shedding, again, you can buy a converter and it’ll run your house for days. In essence you’ll also have a silent generator, very cool feature that.
So after the dyno I strapped on our Racelogic Performance Box to see how quick the Eva really is, rather than claims. The figures below are accurate, real world, and remarkable. An 11-second quarter-mile is quite respectable but the Eva is virtually flat-out after 200m and only picks up 27km/h over the next 200m. Remove that ‘clipping’, which you can see on the graph, and it’ll easily be a 10-second rocket ship.
Performance figures. (Km/h)
0-60 2.0s
0-100 3.4s
0-160 7.4s
¼ mile 11.7s @ 182.4km/h
50-80 (overtaking) 0.8s
0-100m 5.3s @ 127.8km/h.
0-200m 7.3 @ 154.8km/h
Top speed: 198km/h (212km/h on clocks).
So, there you go I’m totally ‘Thunderstruck’ with the Energica Eva, wouldn’t you be? It’s very easy to ride and every day it makes you want to ride, no matter how cold it is outside, which says a lot at my age with aching body bits. Would I pay the price? Fook yeah, it’s only money as they say…and as I say…once you’ve gone electric there’s no going back!
Go to www.e2u.co.za for contact details, purchase enquiries and a mass of technical information.
Pics - 2ftStu
