Bamboo, batteries, Banatti: Is the Green Falcon the future?

Photo: Banatti/New Atlas

Emerging possibilities with electric motors mean designers are, more than ever, experimenting with new designs and materials. The Banatti Green Falcon prototype is a perfect example of this.

According to New Atlas, the machine is built by a small team of designers in the Philippines. The Green Falcon is, at its base, an electric motorcycle, with the 4.4 hp motor powered by a 48-volt lithium battery. Theoretically, the engine can propel the bike at 110 km/h, but the designers have geared it for a 60 km/h top speed, to adhere to local speed limits. With 110 lb-ft of torque, the machine should get to its top speed fairly quickly.

There’s nothing earth-shattering about those figures. What does make the Green Falcon interesting is the funky overall design, but especially the bamboo bodywork. Covered in marine laquer, the bamboo fairing is the result of the designers thinking about the long term. Right now, the Philippines is in the middle of a nation-wide bamboo-planting program, meaning there’ll be lots of bamboo on the market in a few years. Why not use it for motorcycle components? It’s a crazy idea, but it just might work …

For now, though, the Green Falcon prototype is more of a design exercise than a serious attempt to build a mass production-worthy machine. New Atlas says the designer would like to manufacture them as a series of 111 collector bikes, selling them around $21,000 US. That’s a bit more of a realistic goal than taking on the Big Four for the mass transport market, especially if celebrities take to the machines. There’s definitely a market for unique motorcycles still; someone’s buying all those bikes that Keanu Reaves, Lito and Confederate Curtiss are building.