On the heels of the LS218, the world’s fastest production motorcycles, Lightning now says it’s bringing a new model to market.
Lightning Motorcycles has been around a long time, when judged by the standards of electric motorcycle manufacturers, but has been relatively quiet for most of its existence. The LS218 made a big splash when it hit the market in 2014, but that was five years ago.
Now, though, Lightning says it’s about to debut a new electric superbike, the Strike (a groan-worthy pun, for sure). According to Lightning, the new bike is “Designed to shock the industry in every dimension.” Oh good, more puns.
It’s supposed to have a 240-km range, a 240-km/h top speed, and a 35-minute recharging time. Big numbers indeed, but perhaps most interesting is the price tag.
Lightning says it will sell the bike with an MSRP around $13,000 US, which works out to roughly $17,000 Canadian. So, not only is performance likely to far exceed the big-name competition, pricing will be much lower. Hrmmmm …
The charge time is too long. I don’t hang around gas stations for 35 minutes every time I tank up. Of course, for electric bikes there are very few recharge stations anyway so what’s the point of buying one? A 240KM range and nowhere to go.
I think when they say it starts at US$13000 they don’t mean the model with the big battery pack. If I’m wrong the sales will come thundering through.
So the bikes are coming into line with ICE machines as far as range goes, and a 35 minute charge time is acceptable to me, but charging infrastructure is a long ways off, especially outside urban areas, where I prefer to ride.
Not saying never, but more progress needed before I switch from aural gratification to, it IS on!
I hear you, don’t really disagree.
But as long as they do 115v you can plug them in anywhere.
Of course that’s not the “35 minute charge” heheh…
Still, it kinda soothes the fear from going farther and farther from home.
Which is enough for me. But they gotta do 115v.