EICMA 2018: Electrek is at the Milan Motorcycle Show – and here’s a sneak peak

The EICMA 2018 Motorcycle Show in Milan, Italy is likely the largest motorcycle show of the year. Everyone from major brands to new startups are here showing off their newest rides. The number of electric vehicles has grown every year, and this year features an entire section of the show completely reserved for EVs, including electric motorcycles, mopeds, scooters and bicycles.

Electrek is on scene to cover the latest announcements and coolest new personal electric vehicles. Here are just some of the exciting new vehicles we are looking forward to covering over the next few days.

Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric motorcycle

Harley-Davidson recently announced plans for five new electric vehicles, beginning with their LiveWire electric motorcycle prototype.

Despite first debuting the LiveWire prototype a few years ago, it has rarely been seen in public. While this has prompted speculation about Harley-Davidson’s sincerity regarding bringing the LiveWire to life, the company has reiterated its commitment to begin sales of an electric motorcycle by the end of 2019.

Harley-Davidson has confirmed that it will be showing off the LiveWire electric motorcycle here at the EICMA 2018.

We’ll make the most of this opportunity to get up close and personal with the rarely seen Harley-Davidson electric motorcycle, and get more info from the company about their future EV plans.

KYMCO is unveiling a powerful electric something

KYMCO, one of the largest scooter makers in the world, has firmly embraced electric vehicles. Not only have they rolled out multiple electric scooters over the past year, but they also unveiled their new commercial platform last month. That platform, Ionex Commercial, is designed to help governments and businesses adopt electric scooter fleets for scooter shares, delivery fleets and other commercial applications.

Now the company is keeping up the momentum with plans to unveil their newest electric vehicle tomorrow at EICMA 2018. We don’t know what the vehicle is yet, but clues point to it being something bigger and more powerful than their standard line of scooters.

While KYMCO does produce large gas maxi scooters in the 500cc range, there’s the possibility that their new vehicle will be less scooter and more superbike. An electric racing motorcycle from KYMCO would definitely be exciting, but we’ll have to wait until their press conference tomorrow to find out anything more. Rest assured, we’ll be posting the news as soon as it breaks. And if you want to speculate along with us, then check out their teaser video below.

We should also note that KYMCO flew us out and put us up here in Milan for the EICMA 2018.

Ducati’s new electric mountain bike

Ducati is not generally known for being a leader in the EV space. However, they are taking baby steps by debuting their new electric mountain bike at the EICMA 2018 this year.

The MIG-RR, created in a partnership with Thok Ebikes, will feature a high torque mid-drive made by Shimano paired with an underslung battery pack.

Ducati’s new e-bike should have some very high-end components, including long travel Fox suspension and four-piston hydraulic disc brakes. Interestingly, the MIG-RR appears to have mismatched wheels with a 29″ tire up front and a 27.5″ tire in the rear.

Combined with the Ducati design team’s styling, this looks like an exciting e-bike.

Furthermore, it’s great to see the motorcycle legend at least dipping its toe in the water to test out electric vehicles. Hopefully there’s more news to come from Ducati on the EV front, and not just in bicycles.

Arc’s new Vector electric street bike

There’s very little info yet on this new electric motorcycle by UK-based Arc, but it should be very innovative.

From the details we have, we know the Arc Vector is likely to be a high performance, low volume British electric racing motorcycle. It will likely be paired with a suite of high-tech gear designed to work in tandem with the bike.

Such gear should include a special helmet with a heads up display (HUD) on the visor, presenting the rider with pertinent vehicle info. There will also be a smart jacket with haptic feedback to clue-in riders to important info without them needing to take their eyes off the quickly approaching hairpin turn.

The jacket will apparently also have speakers that work with the haptic feedback system to help you “feel” the music.

This sounds quite futuristic, but we’ll be back with more details once we see the bike and gear in person.

Vespa Elettrica

Vespa, like Harley-Davidson, is another one of those companies that seemed to be resting on its brand loyalty and delaying their embrace of electric vehicles.

Unlike Harley-Davidson though, Vespa has finally reached production on their first electric vehicle, the Vespa Elettrica.

The Elettrica scooter was first unveiled two years ago at this very event. Since then though, the Elettrica hasn’t been seen much in public. Now that production has begun, Vespa is bringing the updated production scooter to the show. And we’ll be there to bring you an up close view the newest (and nearly the priciest) Vespa scooter on the market.

…And more from EICMA 2018

That’s just a taste of what’s to come from EICMA 2018.

There’s an entire hall full of purely electric vehicles, so there will be plenty of interesting new products to cover. Keep checking back over the next few days for updates from the show.

And let us know what you’d like to see from EICMA 2018 in the comments below. We’ll do our best to keep an eye out for what you’re looking for!