170 mph Rolling Laboratory
The Ducati V21L MotoE spec racebike in the paddock at Mugello.
For the 2023 season, the FIM MotoE World Cup became an official World Championship class, and Ducati replaced Energica as the spec supplier, introducing its first electric motorcycle of any kind on the world stage.
Standing on the pit wall of race 1 of Round 2 at Mugello is a surreal experience. Eighteen electric Ducati prototypes rush by at 170 mph from out of nowhere. Exiting Bucine, the final corner before the straight, there’s no blaring overture to announce their coming. Like a storm descending, the air pressure changes and they’re upon you. Fantasms of speed, they vanish as quickly as they appeared. These Anemoi, these gods of wind, are only beginning to show their potential.
Roberto Canè, Ducati eMobility director, is candid about Ducati’s expertise in building electric motorcycles. “Before this application there was no knowledge inside Ducati. We are building [our knowledge] with this project. Racing for us is an advanced R&D department. This is R&D for us.”
The Ducati V21L’s battery pack.
The Ducati V21L prototype is powered by 1,152 21 x 17mm cylindrical battery cells (6 cells in parallel x 192 in series) that produce 110kW (150 hp) and 140 Nm (103 lb.-ft.) of torque. The motor, Ducati’s own design, save for the rotor and stator, which were designed in collaboration with its suppliers, spins up to 18,000 rpm. There are 96 temperature sensors in the battery pack alone to provide Ducati with as much data as possible.
Claudio Domenicali, Ducati president and CEO, says: “Our MotoE technology is more similar to [Audi’s RS Q e-tron] Dakar buggy. The battery cell they use is similar. The advantage of the cylindrical cell is you can place them as you like. The big problem with batteries is cooling. Keeping the performance is about cooling the battery and the motor. The more you use power the more you produce heat. With 150 hp that’s draining current from the battery, it gets super hot. The battery starts to scream above 60 degrees [Celsius].”
The V21L uses separate liquid-cooling circuits for the battery and the motor and inverter. The battery pack, surrounded by a carbon fiber shell that acts as a stressed member of the chassis, weighs 110 kilograms (242 pounds), or about half the weight of the entire motorcycle.
The V21L stripped of its fairings. Note the minimal “front frame,” reminiscent of Ducati’s production machines.
Canè says, “If you compare this battery pack with other motorcycle or car battery packs, it’s lightweight. It’s unbelievable. Different motorcycles or cars have battery packs of the same quantity of energy that weigh double this one.”
On a racing motorcycle, weight is paramount. At the moment, current battery technology simply isn’t able to provide the power and range of an internal combustion–powered motorcycle of comparable weight.
Canè says, “The main problem was to make a compromise between range—that is weight, or the number of cells—and power and rideability. If I use cells that can provide lots of energy, it can’t provide lots of power. We need energy and power at the same time because we have a small battery pack. In a car it’s not a problem. They use a lot of cells and the battery pack is very heavy.”
“Electric cars are heavier,” Domenicali emphasizes. “From heavier to far heavier.”
Ducati provides spare bikes for teams.
Since battery technology is the limiting factor in an electric bike’s performance, and Ducati isn’t in the business of battery production, the amount it can innovate is limited, but its expertise certainly has a bearing on battery performance as well as the overall performance of the motorcycle.
“We can innovate in lots of other aspects,” Canè says, “especially the management of the batteries: how you charge them, how you discharge them. There are special algorithms to take care of the cells. With the help of [parent company] VW Group, we’re in contact with the top battery cell developers, so we develop with them. They design batteries for our needs. Now, we have standard cells, but in the future we will try to find the best cells for our applications.”
Ducati is collaborating with QuantumScape, a US battery company that has investment backing from parent company VW.
Before his current post as eMobility director, Canè spent 16 years managing the electronic department in Ducati Corse. As Ducati is keen to point out, the last decade and a half has been a time of rapid development in the field of electronics. Electronic systems found on its production bikes have in large part filtered down from Ducati Corse—which is to say from Canè's department.
A Ducati tech prepares a spare bike ahead of race 1 at Mugello.
The world waits to see what the future of mobility will be. The European Commission recently announced that it will allow the sale of new vehicles with internal combustion engines after 2035 if they run only on climate-neutral e-fuels. While Ducati’s electric know-how is gaining speed, it hasn’t placed all its eggs in one basket.
“We are at the window of hydrogen,” Domenicali says. “We have different meetings to understand more. [The debate between electric and hydrogen is] like 100 years ago with the internal combustion engine: Everyone said ‘diesel’ or ‘gasoline.’ A lot will depend on what governments and politics decide to back for creating a network of distribution.”
Andrea Mantovani leads Matteo Ferrari and Mattia Casadei on the way to an all-Italian podium at race 1 at Mugello.
The MotoE project is clear evidence that Ducati isn’t waiting for political entities to decide the future. Even if the future of mobility isn’t entirely electric, Ducati will not have spent its efforts in vain. The V21L is, after all, a rolling laboratory, an experiment, a motorcycle racing as much in the pursuit of knowledge as it is in the pursuit of glory. However the V21L is perceived in the history books, there’s no doubt that in 2023 it goes like the wind.
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