Let’s toss aside the range and recharge issues common to any electric motorcycle discussions and focus, instead, on design. The sometimes futuristic or overly utilitarian appearance of a lot of electric bikes leaves many of us cold. If you don’t like the George Jetson look, you’re out of luck and that’s why this design caught my eye. Nicolas Petit of France, thought we might like to see what he created, the Harley Davidson Trunk, an oddly named but interesting looking concept taking definite styling cues from Milwaukee iron and combining them with an electric motor, giving us something that even a traditional rider might find somewhat acceptable. Harley may never do this but I like the thought behind it.
It stands to reason, the first electric motorcycles emphasized their electric power with a totally different look, maybe a result of the type of person attracted to electric motorcycle designs in the early stages. After a while, though, if you’re going to actually sell electric motorcycles, you’ll need something that will appeal to someone who likes regular bikes, the old, traditional, gasoline powered motorcycles we’ve known and loved since they were first invented. A sleek jelly bean style isn’t the answer.
The EV-0 RR, for instance, goes after the sportbike crowd with a monocoque chassis that looks a lot like a conventional bike. While it may have some issues as brought up in the comments on that post, the look itself, isn’t bad. On the other hand, the Mission One, pushes the electric look and makes no pretensions about being anything else.
The Trunk has a front end that could have been taken directly from a Harley Davidson and the overall look is sort of conventional, as conventional as possible that is, while being an open construction, electric power design. The motor is enclosed in a rounded case but it looks like it belongs and the whole motorcycle wouldn’t look out of place in a parking lot on bike night.
I think a lot of early electric designs were just first efforts at what this new power platform might be, but as time goes on, we’ll see more designers take a shot at making the electric motorcycle into something you or I might like. This one is getting closer to the idea. I think it’s pretty interesting. How about you?
Link: Petit Motorcycle Crea Design
More images below:
Mark X says
Put on a windshield, and a set of bags, and your off and running. If it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, you can send one to my house. Ride Safe.
pabs says
fresh take nicely done, too playful for the harley crowd but very nice
Doug says
As a Harley rider right now, and after many different motorcycles in my life, I quite like this one. Maybe a little too classic for the monkey on a jelly bean crowd, but I’d be very interested.
frozenprairie says
The best looking electric I’ve seen yet, though the bike reminds me less of a Harley and more of a hardtail British single from the late 1940s/early 50s: nice “classic” style but more nimble than the huge cruisers on offer now. I want one.
Bravo Nico
MFBT says
Are you kidding!?! “…wouldn’t look out of place in a parking lot on bike night.” The engine looks like an oversized bathroom hand dryer. The only thing going for it IS the front end (and maybe the rear wheel/ swingarm). Back to the drawing board.
nobody says
Sort of reminds me of the old German Imme motorcycle. It looks to me like it should have a telelever front end and a BMW logo on it……
marshall says
I have to say I don’t get an H-D vibe at all from this bike. But what do I know. Judging by the only examples of electric bikes that have actually been built and tested, a real electric bike built with current technology needs to pretty much fill every cubic inch of available space between your knees with batteries. Because of that, I bet the first practical/popular electric bikes will have very little open space in there. Of course as battery technology improves, anything will be possible.
TomCat 327 says
I have said this before, and vow to say it again, all CG concept bikes are no better than the ones in TRON. It ain’t real till someone builds one, and specs don’t count till someone rides it. Till then its just a nicely done sketch.
C.P.T.L. says
I see the Confederate Wraith and Fighter design squared, different proportionally and a bit more upright, but essentially the same.
B.Case says
I’d be willing to bet this is not CG. I think it’s a really well done 1:1 real-world model made to look like a CG environment using Photoshop. Nothing wrong with that, many designers and car studios do this. But, regardless, it doesn’t matter what tool the designer uses just as long as the idea is communicated effectively. This is effective to me.
Definitely some Imme influence, and great execution. If this guy doesn’t already have a resume in at any of the various start-up electric bike companies, he should.
-brian
WRXr says
I like their idea of design. The look is good, but putting the heaviest part of the bike up high (the battery) makes no sense other than for aesthetics. For better handling and easy removal you want that weight down low. Which is why almost every electric bicycle in the world carries the battery either on the front down tube or the seat tube .
B*A*M*F says
I like this bike. I looks a lot like the Sachs Madass 500 concept from a few years back.
Bryan says
Just another example of a designer that has no concept of engineering or reality. The motor is about three times to big and the battery is at least three times to small to be anywhere close to functional. Front brakes are overkill for a bike that would have a hard time getting to 100kph. Of course he conveniently forget to put on real-world things like mirrors, turn signals, stop light etc. because that would cludder up the design. At least he put a headlight on it. Maybe the big discs on the sides of the engine are really subwoofers so he can recreate the patented HD sound? Thats to the only way you would get any HD riders to even sit on it.
Question: Why would an electric motorcycle need a starter button?
ep says
i like it. it’s different, which is good. but while ziemer and his buds are running the willie g show in milwalkee we will never see a bike like this. that’s a fact i can’t ignore.
ep says
BTW, sorry to the residents of milwaukee for my poor spelling.
Jim says
Where’s the sub-woofer?
David says
Batteries are no more practical today then they were 100 years ago. If you insist on an answer to a non problem then devote your effort to solutions that mimic our current answers,direct conversion of fuel to energy. Fuel cells for you electric ecentrics or direct burning of hydrogen in more conventional engines. I would think that the person that the person that can first produce technology that increases internal combustion efficiency from 20-30% to 70-80% would make Bill Gates look like a pauper.
nicolas petit says
thank for your article Paul Crowe –
nicolas petit france
Len says
I have no problem supplying the coal that will be used to generate the electricity to charge it.
FREEMAN says
Any chance there’s a view from the other side?
Mark says
Cool bike. I love the retro 50’s Sunbeam/Harley/Indian look. Most EV two-wheelers end up with wheels that appear too small or too skinny. Petit was successful in incorporating classic proportions. Good eye. It works for me–a middle-aged guy who’s modern enough to want zero-emissions, but too old-fashioned to get past the notion that vespa-looking scooters are for European Juvenile Delinquents, techy geeks, and circus clowns. Guys like me are a narrow market. The larger EV motorcycle/scooter market is for American men and women in their late teens/early twenties. Will this catch the catch the eye of them? PS. It will never sell as a “Harley”.
ML in Boston
Mark says
I figured out what it is. It’s the Al Gore midlife crisis bike.
ML in Boston.
laurent says
Nicolas is a talented designer but he should leave motorcycles alone of make serious upgrades to his mechanical and electrical engineering knowledge.
Best