MOTO E NICOLAS GOUBERT: WE ARE AT THE START OF A GREAT STORY

Electrification is on the rise in motorsport and, starting next year, the Moto GP race weekends will be joined by a fourth series, the Moto E, bringing electric racing bikes to tracks around the world. Dorna’s Nicolas Goubert is the man behind it all and he was more than happy to tell us all about it.

 

 

 

Moto E is a whole new series. We’ve already had a teaser this season but it will become part of the race weekend in 2019. Can you give us a quick introduction to the series?

 

Yes, starting in 2019 it will be an extra series, so it will be a fourth addition to the race weekend alongside Moto 3, Moto 2 and Moto GP. It’s a single-make series. This is because it’s an innovative series and we want to see proper races. If you start a series based on new technology, the differences will be too big and the races would get boring.

 

So the same bike for everyone – what kind of bike is it?

 

The bike itself is produced by the Italian company Energise who has been making a fully electric model for quite a while now, the Ego. Our race bike will be very similar to that bike, but with different battery technology. The battery for the race bike will be a prototype battery that will have double the power for the same weight. Of course, on top of that, the bike will have competition brakes, suspension and tyres because we still want it to be a true racing series. The bikes will be powered by green power generated by Enel.

 

 

 

What’s the goal for the series? To become the next Moto GP?

 

At this point we have no plans to replace any of the existing series. We just want it to be an added series which is a perfect position for us to be in. Before we set any more ambitions, we want to show people that the technology exists for bikes, too, just as it has been around for cars for a few years. As well as that we are offering our manufacturer Energise the perfect proving ground. This is a world championship, so we’ll be racing in all kinds of conditions - from hot to cold, from humid to dry. This will generate an enormous amount of data for them to continue developing EV bikes. And in the end, that’s what racing is for.

 

How fast will the Moto E be?

 

Well it will be roughly around the same difference as between every other Moto X series. So 3-4 seconds slower than Moto 3 currently is. This is because the bike is still pretty heavy at this point. Heavier than a MotoGP bike, so it’s maybe a little more difficult to handle in the chicanes than a Moto 3.

 

 

 

What’s your favourite bit about the Moto E?

 

My favourite thing isn’t actually something I’d imagined myself when all this started. It was when I was sitting on a plane next to Christian Sarron, who won the 250cc world title in 1984, and I asked him what he thought of Moto E. To my surprise, he told me that he’d been driving an electric car for a few years - something I’d never have expected. He went on to tell me that he loved the fact that there was no lag between hitting the accelerator and the acceleration itself – it’s instantaneous, and that, more importantly for motorbikes, there’s no vibration at all. And that on a Moto E bike you can feel a lot more input from the road through your body than you do on a bike with a vibrating internal combustion engine.