Transportation. Electric motorcycles and scooters: where are the leading brands?

In the electric two-wheeler market, the offer is limited, particularly among the market-leading brands.

There were some big announcements a few years ago, even some great attempts like the Livewire One at Harley-Davidson, but the latter remained a commercial failure to the point that the American brand separated it to create a separate brand, and the announcements of the others remained at the announcement stage.

There are only outsiders and brands that disappear as quickly as they appear.

It's difficult to make a choice, especially since the products are very rarely able to leave the cities, whereas for many bikers, motorcycling is above all a matter of "rides" with friends.

Having tried a number of them, Livewire, Zéro Motocycles, VMoto, etc., it is in fact not conceivable to share the road with thermals that do not want to take a very long break every 100 to 150 km at best.

For now, electric two-wheelers, whether motorcycles or scooters, are confined to cities, where they make the most sense. Where are we now?

You only have to look at the product catalogs of the leading brands on the market to see that the offer is very limited and often limited to 50cc equivalents.

In the electric two-wheeler market, the offer is limited, particularly among the market-leading brands.

There were some big announcements a few years ago, even some great attempts like the Livewire One at Harley-Davidson, but the latter remained a commercial failure.

Yamaha, second in the first half, also only offers the NEO's in 50cc equivalent.

BMW is doing much better by being the unambiguous leader in electric scooters, even if this is tending to run out of steam with its CE-04 and, to a lesser extent, its CE-02, which are accessible with a B license equivalent to 125.

Behind, we can note the effort made by Kawasaki with its small electric and hybrid motorcycles Ninja e-1 and Ninja 7 Hybrid for sports and Z e-1 and Z 7 Hybrid for roadsters but the commercial success is not there.

Then, no leading brand has electric two-wheelers in its catalog or even any announcements in progress, it's dead calm.

With the space being free, or almost, outsiders are determined to take their share of the cake, or rather the biscuit, as the market remains so small.

We can obviously mention Livewire, which is now flying on its own with the One still in the catalog and the new S2 range with its multiple variations.

We also think of Zéro Motorcycles, a pioneer in the niche and specialist in the subject since no thermal engine is in the catalog, high-performance and well-equipped motorcycles with good autonomy compared to the competition since you can reach 150 km without any problems.

We must not forget Can-Am, well known in France for its Spyder 3-wheelers and quads, which is launching two electric motorcycles this year: a roadster and a real trail bike, with good autonomy and good performance.

All are motorcycles that claim to be suitable for a road trip or a Sunday ride for those who are willing to take a long charging break in the middle of a 250 km route.

For the city, the offer is wider. We obviously think of VMoto Super Soco with its small, easy-to-handle motorcycles that we see relatively often in urban centers.

We can also mention Silence, which makes electric scooters for the car brand Seat, Askoll, which we know for its 125cc thermal scooters in particular and which is launching into the electric market, Ultraviolette, which we're talking a lot about at the moment with the LSR77, and many other brands with an often limited range.

After a rise in this market since the Covid crisis in 2020, we see that electric has been declining every year and that only scooters seem to be driving it.

We bet that this will evolve in the years to come with the arrival of new battery technologies for significantly faster charging and even a little more autonomy, certainly exceeding 200 km would be an interesting milestone.