Believe it or not, the STORM Eindhoven team is on schedule for their round-the-world electric motorcycle tour, with just over two weeks left to go.
We first told you about the STORM Eindhoven electric motorcycle project back in July. This is one of the coolest university projects we’ve ever seen: Since 2014, a group of Dutch students has been working on developing an electric motorcycle aimed at touring. They’ve put together two machines, and since August, they’ve been trying to ride around the world in 80 days, while only charging their bike from the existing power grid (it helps that the bikes have a 380-km range).
While that sounds like a pretty tall order, the team is over two-thirds done its tour, and for now, it’s still on schedule. The riders are currently in the US, headed to New York City in the coming days, where they’ll pack their bikes on a flight for Europe; the tour wraps up on November 2.
Barring disaster, they should have little trouble finishing their trip on time, as the trickier parts (especially the miles through Asia) are all behind them now.
So, what does it mean? Assuming they pull it off, the students’ feat means electric bikes may not be super-affordable yet, but they’re capable of anything their gas-powered counterparts can do — as long as there’s a charging port handy. A 380-km range is more than enough for most riders, even those who want to lay down long-distance miles.
It’s interesting the electric bikes they’re riding use a swappable, modular battery pack. Battery tech is the major issue holding back electric motorcycles, with one problem being no two manufacturers use the same batteries. That means that, for now, it’s unfeasible to swap battery packs on the fly, with no standard design that fits different models.
But given last week’s news that Yamaha and Honda are talking about co-operating on electric motorcycle design, that may change in the near future. Yamaha has already developed the PES1 and PED1 electric concept motorcycles with swappable battery packs. If Honda were to introduce models using the same batteries, the electric motorcycle world could suddenly become much more practical for many riders.
