Lightning to develop 500-mile electric motorcycle

Lightning Motorcycles has already managed to take records with its LS-218 electric superbike and the firm’s next aim is to make a machine that can beat a petrol bike for range as well as performance.

The LS-218 is named after the 218mph top speed that a prototype version achieved on the Bonneville Salt Flats back in 2011. The production version is theoretically capable of the same feat. To underline its performance, Lightning won the 2013 Pikes Peak hillclimb, beating all petrol-powered opposition.

But if question marks over the performance potential of electric bikes are being erased, there’s still a large amount of concern over their range. That’s Lightning’s next challenge.

Founder Richard Hatfield now plans to develop an electric bike that can make the 500 mile trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles without a stop. That would be a huge step in countering the ‘range anxiety’ that prevents many people from considering electric bikes. It would be more than any stock petrol bike could manage on a single tank.

The bike to complete the trip is promised to be an all-new design.

He’s working with the Battery Innovation Center  in Indiana to achieve the goal.

Speaking to IndianaVoice on Forbes, he said: “We see ourselves as following in the footsteps of Tesla, and accomplishing the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles run would show that range anxiety is becoming a thing of the past.”

At the moment it’s not clear whether the 500-mile bike will be a one-off prototype or a planned production follow-up to the LS-218. Either way the battery technology will surely help boost the range of future electric bikes.