Musk to the rescue?
Electric motorcycles are moving further into the mainstream with every passing moment. Spearheaded by California company Zero, and aided by the Harley-Davidson Livewire,
the effort to make electric motorcycles a staple on our roads has
gained momentum of late. For many, electric vehicles are synonymous with
Tesla. Elon Musk’s marque helped not only make electric cars more
common on our roads, but he made them cool too.
Which is why many wish Tesla would turn its attention to motorcycles. Anopinion piece by Matthew DeBord of Insider magazine
is the latest public musing about this prospect, and it’s worth taking a
look at. DeBord is quick to point out the first and biggest obstacle in
recruiting Tesla to our cause: Musk already said “no”.
In
fact, Musk has “one of those things nearly killed me” syndrome. An
affliction that happens when a teenager is thrust onto a bike by a
friend with even less skill or training than themselves and immediately
crashes in a scarily spectacular way that makes them swear off bikes.
DeBord makes some other points but he misses the mark on a few. So let’s break down some of the more salient points.
Mirroring Other Brands
Ignoring the point about Tesla being like Honda, which is not really relevant to anything, we get to the fact that Harley-Davidson
can’t go it alone. This is true. One great thing about Tesla is that is
has fandom that, in many ways, aligns with Harley-Davidson’s own. Tesla
people are fanatics—literally lining up in their thousands just to put
down a deposit on a car that wasn’t even a prototype yet in one case.
If
Tesla could move into motorcycles they’d bring a lot of those fanboys
and fangirls with them. That would help with DeBord’s next point.
Building Critical Mass
Not
only would Tesla inject an instant customer base into the bottom of the
market, but Tesla could help the electric motorcycle gain legitimacy in
the eyes of the average joe. Then, maybe we could watch as Tesla’s
modern, urban fanatics went up against the HD faithful—and that would be
a brand war worth the popcorn.
Electric Motorcycles Are Better?
Lol,
no. On this, DeBord and I are wildly divergent. Electric motorcycles
have a hell of a lot going for them, but they’re not necessarily better.
Even when I finally embrace my very own electric motorcycle I’ll always
be a fan of an internal combustion engine, a gearbox, and a clutch.
Those things though make motorbikes less accessible for new riders. An
electric bike with no clutch, no gearbox, and one-handed operation in
most circumstances might make the previously intimidating seem easy and
even intuitive for new entrants. Of course, we don’t need Tesla for that
part.
So What Do We Need?
For
electric motorcycles to take off we need a lot. Insurance ratings,
government legislation and a critical mass of large-scale, trusted
manufacturers are the key. We need to bring those bikes to market,
excite a mix of new and existing riders, and get them to throw down
their hard-earned money. Charging technology and stations, even
swappable batteries are all issues that need to be resolved before
electric bikes take off in a big way.
A big brand
like Tesla brings more star power to proceedings than just any other
manufacturer could.That’s why so many people wish Tesla would dip its
toe and bring that ready-made cool factor to the segment. We can grow
our industry and the electric side of it without Tesla though, and my
bet is that we will.
