Ducati's relationship with the electric motorcycle industry hasn't been very stable in recent years.
Starting in January 2019, Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali declared that "the future is electric" and confirmed that the company would soon begin production of its first electric motorcycle.
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The announcement caused a stir in the industry, as there was no previous indication that Ducati had begun creating a prototype for an electric motorcycle, let alone that the company was preparing to begin production.
However, several months later, Ducati failed to deliver on the CEO's promise. Several collaborations had led to the creation of Ducati-branded electric scooters and other smaller vehicles, but no electric model had been launched.
Last month, Ducati's VP of Global Sales and board member Francesco Milicia appeared to "freeze" the idea of producing an electric Ducati motorcycle anytime in the near future.
Now new statements from Ducati's CEO have helped confirm the reason the company has not made progress on electric motorcycles.
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As it turns out, the battery is the biggest obstacle for Ducati.
According to Domenicali's claims, batteries have not progressed far enough to provide sufficient stored energy, and the performance appears to be somewhat low, considering the rest of the industry.
Even without the impressive advancements of solid-state batteries, Italian sports bike manufacturer Energica seems to have had no problem producing high-performance electric motorcycles using today's lithium-ion battery technology.
The company produces various models with ranges of 400 km and 230 km, thanks to the high-capacity 21.5 kWh battery.
These batteries were released 18 months ago.
In fact, Energica is the sole supplier of electric racing motorcycles for the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup, whose 240 km/h (150 mph) electric motorcycles are thrilling the crowd with their performance.
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To be fair, the Energica Ego model is certainly quite heavy, carrying around 50 kilos more than the 200 kilos of the Ducati Panigale V4.
However, despite the Ducati weighing 20% less than the Energica and having about 40% more horsepower, the Energica is still ahead of the Ducati in 0-60 acceleration time, clocking in at just 2.6 seconds compared to the Panigale's 3.5 seconds.
Even Harley-Davidson, whose bikes are known more for comfort than performance, has an electric motorcycle that beats the Panigale model in 0-60 acceleration time at 3.0 seconds.
When it comes to battery production, although Domenicali seems to admit that Ducati cannot keep up with electric motorcycle startups or legacy motorcycle manufacturers that have embraced electric model production, he does not deny that electric machines could be a beneficial addition to Ducati's product line.
