Mission Motors went to the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials at Bonneville with their Mission One production prototype, not a specially prepared salt flats racer, and set a speed record with an average speed of 150.059 mph. They also had a number of individual passes at 161 mph. That’s a street legal electric motorcycle. Not bad.
I was reading through the press release below and saw this quote by Jeremy Cleland:
It pulls hard all the way from 0 on up to 161mph, all in one gear, with incredible torque.
Think about that, one gear from 0 to 160, just roll it on and go. No matter what your feelings are about electric motorcycles, you have to appreciate that kind of single speed performance from a technical standpoint. With more of the conventional ICE powered motorcycles moving toward automatic shifting, or at least, automatic clutches, the electric’s ability to do away with shifting altogether is pretty cool.
Press release and video below:
SAN FRANCISCO, September 15, 2009 – Mission Motors, a San Francisco based company redefining the world of performance motorcycles, announced today that its zero-emissions Mission One electric superbike has claimed the national AMA top speed record for an electric motorcycle, achieving a record 150.059 mph two-pass average run sustained for one mile at Bonneville Speedway on September 1st, 2009. Lead up to runs for the record saw one-way speeds across the mile stretch at 161mph.
The record-breaking top speed was achieved at the annual BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials at the Bonneville Speedway, approximately 90 miles west of Salt Lake City, UT. This event offers world and national record setting opportunities to top contenders in many classes. The Mission One achieved a top speed higher than 70% of the gasoline powered entrants.
“I give the credit for this achievement to our extraordinary engineering team. We set this record on our first visit to the Bonneville Salt Flats on poor salt conditions and in high cross-winds. And to set it with our production prototype vehicle, not a custom Bonneville bike is truly amazing,†said Edward West, Mission Motors Founder and President. “We’ve all known what was possible for the Mission One for some time, and to set this record is very gratifying. It’s a watershed moment for electric vehicles and further proof that the era of the electric superbike has begun. Electric is no longer the future of high-performance motorcycling; it is the present.â€
Since returning from the TTXGP, Mission Motors’ engineering team has been working hard to improve the Mission One, resulting in this performance milestone. Its top speed puts the Mission One into a category all alone: the world’s fastest street-legal pure-electric motorcycle, and adds to the list of firsts that the young company has already achieved.
“The Mission One is just an incredible motorcycle,†said Jeremy Cleland, the AMA and AFM racer who shares duties as both Product Manager and Test Rider at Mission Motors. “This is a bike that can rip up the track at Infineon Raceway, do power wheelies at 80 mph, and then come out here to Bonneville and dismantle the prior electric world speed record. It pulls hard all the way from 0 on up to 161mph, all in one gear, with incredible torque. It’s a riding experience like no other. The important thing to understand is this is not a one-off race vehicle, this is a production prototype. It is the same bike that we raced at the Isle of Man and features the same powertrain that we will be delivering to our customers in 2010.â€
Mission Motors has targeted high performance and iconic design in the development of its first vehicle, the Mission One. With a top speed of over 150 mph, a 150-mile range and unparalleled access to torque, the Mission One surpasses the performance of other production electric motorcycles and rivals gas-powered incumbents. The Mission One’s design, created by Yves Behar and fuseproject, blends traditional racing elements with a modern pioneering sensibility. The motorcycles are produced in San Francisco, CA with a radical commitment to environmental sustainability.
The company is selling 300 Mission One electric motorcycles in the 2010 model year, with the first 50 Premier Limited Edition models available for reservation now.
Link: Mission Motors
taxman says
just wish they were more affordable.
Paulinator says
WOW! I’d bet that in the future ICE prime-movers will have to be coupled to CVT (or very close and rapid shifting) drive-lines to compete with that kind of relentless power delivery.
WRXr says
Bravo!
Scott says
Wow! Very cool. They seem to be making leaps and bounds. Can’t wait to see them racing next year!
akumabito says
That is amazing. Too bad with current battery technology it is pretty much an either/or choice between range or speed – can’t have both with the current breed of EV’s unfortunately. Can’t wait what the future holds though!
PaulN says
Nifty stuff. I would like to see electrics make a dent in the market as well. Ditto on the battery comment.
cycleguy says
As a big fan and cheerleader of electric vehicles, it’s great to see someone show the potential of electric powered motorcycles. However, this press release seems to me to be more hype than an indication of any real breakthrough. 150MPH is certainly not slow, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. How long did it take to get to 150 mph? With appropriate gearing an Aprilia RS250 can achieve those top speeds, but you certainly wouldn’t want to accelerate from a traffic light geared that way. My opinion is that the Mission One bike does not have stock gearing and acceleration is severely compromised to achieve this top speed.
The limited specs available from their website support this. They claim 100 lb/ft of torque at 6500 motor RPM. This sounds great, until you consider that it has no transmission and can only multiply it’s torque through the single ratio final drive chain and sprocket. A little math indicates that to achieve a 150MPH top speed requires 2000 rear wheel RPM’s.
If the max motor RPM is 6500, this would indicate a final drive ratio of 3.25/1 at 6500 motor RPM. This is assuming that the motor still delivers 100 lb/ft at that RPM. Typically AC motors produce max torque at approx 1/2 their max RPM and drop off significantly from there. This gear ratio would produce a max of 325 lb/ft of rear wheel torque. This is very similar to a typical gas engined sport bike in 5th gear, however due to transmission torque multiplication, 1st gear delivers approx 1000 lb/ft of torque to the rear wheel, about three times the torque and acceleration. A Ducati 1198 stuck in 4th gear would have very similar performance in both acceleration and top speed.
I find it very hard to believe that the Mission One bike can achieve similar acceleration to a current sport bike with a 150MPH top speed at the same time.
In order to achieve both with a single speed transmission, a 300 lb/ft motor would be required.
I certainly don’t want to knock this company as I would really like to see the electric bike make progress and it will, however these claims seem to me a bit misleading.
I’ll be looking forward to them releasing complete specs and performance information before I make a final judgment.
Good luck Mission Motors!
racerraerae says
Good analysis, cycleguy.
The thing that makes it not accurate is that the rpm limitations of big AC induction electric motors are much much higher than 6500 rpm. I don’t know what mission’s can go to but it would not surprise me if it were 15k rpm or higher. So that changes things if that’s the case.
racerraerae says
in the hell for leather piece about it there is a mission guy who talks about the gearing change being a 45 tooth rear vs. a 40 — so that would suggest high rpm motor rather than doggy gearing–
“The batteries, motor, motor controller are the exact same as the production bike. The gearing was a 40T rear sprocket (from 45T on the production bike) to get a top speed in excess of 161mph. This is a very easy sprocket change any customer can do.”
cycleguy says
I would love to be proven wrong, perhaps I can prove myself wrong. Upon further search, I found a mention that the motor spins to 15000 RPM max with peak torque at 6500RPM.
This would calculate to 7.5/1 gear ratio at 150MPH, which would give 750 lb/ft of rear wheel torque, now things are looking much better. I doubt that the motor can pull to 15000 RPM at that speed due to the significant torque fall-off of these motors after peak which accounts for the fairly small rear sprocket I see in the photo, to lower motor RPM nearer to it’s torque peak at higher speeds. This will still reduce acceleration significantly, however, with production gearing, if this bike manages 120mph and sport bike acceleration at the same time, I would consider it a success.
Tin Man 2 says
Sounds good, But what could this Bike do with a simple 2 Spd gear box? Can a gear box not hold up to this torque and RPM? Looks like a lot of potential is being wasted using a direct drive with a big powerfull motor, Maybe range could be extended using a smaller motor with a trans. The future is looking better all the time!
GenWaylaid says
Tin Man,
Gearboxes on electric vehicles have been out of favor ever since Tesla tried and failed to make a practical 2-speed box for their Roadster. The problem is that electric motors have near-peak torque over such a wide range that getting the most out of the motor would require very widely spaced ratios. Electric motors may not have much rotating mass, but it would be spinning very fast and it would need to undergo a massive speed change when the gears change. Tesla never did find a way to do that without an unacceptably short lifetime for the clutch and gears, so they beefed up their motor and went to one ratio for the production vehicles. I suppose some sort of electronic double-clutching could adjust the motor speed while it’s disconnected from the wheels.
Honestly, if the Mission One does 133mph with stock gearing and accelerates like a sportbike, I can’t see what good a gearbox would do on the street. Maybe a track model could carry a few close ratios for even better acceleration and 150mph on the straights, but the extra weight and complexity may or may not be worthwhile.
JC says
Congratulations to Mission One, they are getting press all over, not just on motorcycle sites.
A two speed gearbox is certainly worth exploring, but two speed makes it a custom part with limited applications. Would almost make more sense to take a V-twin based transmission and use it despite the weight penalty and excess gears.
A gearbox itself is a design compromise, their are advantages and disadvantages to a single speed reduction versus a gearbox. Their are obviously advantages and disadvantages to a gearbox, some of which is they add weight and cost. If you add weight and cost, it’s often worth considering spending the effort to add a more powerful motor and battery pack than to add a gearbox.
skizick says
How about a Salsbury clutch? Variable pulleys like snowmobiles.
Tin Man 2 says
Im not looking for more power, Im looking for range. CV trans, Salsbury or who knows what. Will a less powerfull motor use less batt power? Enough energy savings to make up for the weight penalty of a trans? Sportbike acceleration and top speed is good for P.R. but we also need real life range. Its all good, the advances are comming faster all the time now!
Rick says
@cycleguy: provide citations.
Kenny says
Couldn’t you have the motor spinning at constant rpm, say peak torque or where the motor is most efficient. Consider it as the idle speed on your standard ICE engine. The rotor could be directly connected to a CVT. After the CVT you would have the clutch for disconnecting the rear wheel from the power.
How the clutch would fare in such a high torque application is a little bit beyond me….. though I don’t think making it a easily replaceable consumable would be exceptionally difficult.
Disadvantages: No regenerative braking, high stresses on the final drive, no gear changing
Advantages: Infinitely variable gear ratio, performance increase.
Kudos to mission regardless.
kim says
Any type of transmission causes a power loss, so with an electric vehicle, which doesn’t really NEED one, the drawbacks will outweigh the advantages.
FREEMAN says
Way to go, Mission One.
I can’t wait to see more and more ebikes breaking records like this.
Kenny says
@kim
True but pulling a wheelie at 80mph is also a power loss.
A transmission will add weight and complexity but makes the engine easier to tame and can be tuned to provide more performance. Mechanical advantage isn’t called an advantage for no reason.
Besides if you want to wheelie at 80, stupid as that is, it can be arranged by tuning the transmission
monkeyfumi says
“With more of the conventional ICE powered motorcycles moving toward automatic shifting, or at least, automatic clutches, the electric’s ability to do away with shifting altogether is pretty cool.”
changing gears is part of the skill and enjoyment of riding a sportsbike.
pabsyboots says
CONGRATS MISSION
By way of contrast I raced the salt flats in 96 (ish) on a stock ZX10 to 149mph thanks to thin air and a spinning tire at max speed, yep you read that right..spinning tire at 149…
The Mission bike did 150 !!!!! how great is that !
We all know electrics dont have stamina due to a lack of energy density and we all know first production like the Tesla will be for well heeled early adopters so what ? the mission did 150mph !!
Cycleguy, put down your calculator and stop bench racing its petty, bonneville is about terminal speed that it. Mission did 150 with a haridryer motor and bested the all conquering ZX10 so play nice and give credit genuinly where its due instead of writing paragraphs convincing yourself how smart you are…
akumabito says
About the acceleration concerns raised earlier – I am certainly no expert on land speed records of any type, but aren’t they generally measured within a set distance? As you said, given sufficient space and time, almost any engine could work its way to high velocities. I do believe that’s the reason they factor in some restraints. I would imagine this record run being measured over a standing mile?
Paulinator says
No, Pabsyboots, CycleGuy walked it thru and got corrected on the RPM issue. I learned a few things while following along – and I appreciate that.
Mike D. says
On the upside I think that all of the green companies are great. And that a bike without shifting or noise will be a much more enjoyable experience. On the downside I ask you to refer to http://www.whokilledtheelectriccarmovie.com for a glipse into the truth and you will see that this technology is being pushed away by greedy politicians everyday..kinda goes to show you why batteries are cost more than a brand new gas powered machine.
kwj says
Mike D. I think there is quite a bit of spin in that movie. There are many reasons the GM killed that car could be many, but at the time people weren’t concerned by gas prices because they weren’t that high, the vehicle was ugly, and the battery technology wasn’t quite ready yet. Batteries have a limited number of charge/discharge cycles and those probly wouldn’t have lasted long, and I’m sure that wasn’t the only thing wrong with them, they weren’t environmentally friendly on a global scale (toxic materials and such). Keeping a car on the market for such a small demand is an expensive thing for a company to do, they need to sell lots of them in order to not lose money. They destroyed them because if they hadn’t they would have had to continue supplying replacement parts for those cars for 10 years, for such a small number of cars it’s again just not practical. It wasn’t until recently that the technology became even near feasible for the masses, and as we discuss on here all the time, it’s still not 100% ready. I don’t think that movie tells the whole story.
todd says
Some people are just scared of math.
This is a great achievement; I can’t think of many other electric motorcycles that have done this.
Motors of all kinds are most efficient when they are running at or near full power. If you have a motor that is powerful enough to run 150mph at Bonneville it won’t be nearly as efficient as a smaller motor running down the highway. Install a motor that is sufficient for 75mph highways will not be as efficient as a smaller motor running around town. Currently the majority of people looking at electric vehicles are looking at them for greater efficiency around town, maybe on the highway if reduced range is not an issue. Thought the performance of the Mission One is impressive it won’t be nearly as efficient as a bike designed for lower speeds. People will ultimately look at the range vs. the size and cost of replacement of the battery pack and choose a bike that didn’t set a record at Bonneville. Just gearing it for lower speeds won’t help since you’ll be running the motor in a less efficient range.
Regardless, I’m sure they had great fun doing this and I believe this is what it’s ultimately all about.
-todd
JC says
“This is a great achievement; I can’t think of many other electric motorcycles that have done this.”
Mike Corbin in 1974 went 165mph, that record stood until this year, where it was upped to 176mph.
http://www.scta-bni.org/Bonneville/BNI_records.htm
( scroll down in the link to Omega class)
Those are SCTA records, and the record at BUB is AMA.
Not trying to take anything away from the Mission motors efforts, but just pointing out others efforts. Can’t believe I forgot about Corbin’s record until now!
Electric motors can run at low power efficiently, it may not be the peak efficiency but it can still be quite good (peak power on an electric motor isn’t usually peak efficiency).
Marshall says
I had the pleasure of being at the BUB trials, and I saw the Mission One run along with many other awesome bikes. The speed measurement is taken from the average speed over a one mile stretch.
frozen prairie says
I, for one, enjoyed cycleguys technical posts. Thanks, and keep ’em coming.
Azzy says
Mike D. – the fact of the EV1 was that GM had a ton of cash into it, for a small fleet of cars.
Think of ti this way, Honda has 100 hydrogen cars testing in CA right now. Those cars took (IIRC) 2 million to design and make. They only lease them because if they were to sell, it would cost $200,000+ for what is just an experimental commuter car. And in this country, like many others, you have to make parts and support with parts for at least 10 years after the car was produced. So to have the infrastructure to maintain, by law, they would of ended up selling those EV-1s for more than they were ever worth and probably more than the the folks leasing them ever could afford.
Electric cars are cool, they’ve been around since the 1800’s (in fact the first world land speed record was set by 2 men racing the things in early the 1900’s), but the material tech for batteries and a safe light structure is not there, and is just slowly becoming available and feasible today.
The car you refer to was a testing ground for the upcoming Volt. our politicians do more things in our face every day that are cause for them to be thrown out by the ears, no need to search the forest behind the giant brothel for the kids drinking a few beers.
——
As for the M1 bike… Cool!
todd says
Still, it’s impressive. Consider that pabsyboots ’96 ZX-10 made around 118hp or about 100 at the rear wheel and ran a 149 mph average. That means (assuming the aerodynamics of the two are similar) that the Mission One is also putting out 100hp at the rear wheel. If the motor was, in fact, spinning at 15000 RPM it would only need 40 or so pound-feet of torque to have the same performance. This is still current level 600 super sport performance, at least for top speed – and this is from an electric motor. Acceleration would need to be timed to determine if it’s any better without the gear advantage of torque multiplication.
Sure people have gone faster but it takes a significantly lower amount of power to do 150 in a typical streamliner, around 25hp or so will do the trick. Still, I guess I would be more inclined to buy a 25hp street electric since it would be lighter, less expensive, more efficient (greater range), and still do 100 mph if I ever felt like it.
-todd
Kent Riches says
BS…. total BS and marketing crap…. these guys know my bike is the worlds fastest electric motorcycle and yet choose to disrespect me with their PR just so they can back up their BS marketing claims of 150mph for 150 mile range….. Yes I exceeded Mike Corbin’s 35-year-old record that these guys choose to ignore yet on some of their press releases they claim they beat some absurdly low 60mph record….. Total punks…
Kent Riches
http://www.eracebike.com
http://www.motorcyclebodywork.com
Marshall says
Kent, I believe the 60 mph record they beat was set by a bike whose weight and fairings were similar to the Mission One – in other words, in the same racing class. They aren’t trying to compete with streamliners.
…although I’m curious how they’d do if they swapped the Isle of Mann fairings for an enclosed teardrop shape and extended the wheelbase.