ENERGICA EVA ESSE ESSE9
Plug in power is here to stay. So is the Energica Eva Esse Esse9 a household appliance or viable alternative to petrol power?
There’s more to electric bikes than recharging issues and portliness.
THE A47 FROM Stamford to Corby is a single carriageway A-road with big sweeping curves, few side turnings, a good surface and decent visibility. So yes, on a quiet summer’s evening on a quick bike it’s a riotous blur. And the rest of the time it’s really frustrating. The 47 connects the A1 with the A14, so in work hours it’s usually bunged up with trucks and cars dawdling at 50mph, blocking the best bends with nose-to-tail snails. But on the Energica Eva Esse Esse9 it’s hilarious, even in the 8.15am East Midlands rush hour. Drift up behind the cluster of cars, wait for the gap, twist the throttle and whoosh. You’ve been pushed forward with instant drive, squirting past lines of traffic with unbelievable ease. You drop into gaps, and then you’re gone again before dawdling drivers have time to stop yawning. Twisting the throttle on this bike is addictive and feels like a new experience. Because it is. It’s not just the acceleration, it’s the instantaneous thrust that seems to translate brainwaves into forward motion. No ‘which gear, what revs?’ just immediate, kick
in the pants progress and flashing lights on the dash panel as the 80 kilowatt motor spins up to its 10,500rpm limit and the bike zooms towards a 125mph maximum speed. Welcome to the electric world. Stricter emissions limits, dwindling oil supplies and social pressure are going to increase the squeeze on internal combustion. Electric bicycles are everywhere and commuter scooters clutter urban bike parks. In the car world electricity is almost commonplace. Teslas, Nissan Leafs and the BMW i3 are familiar sights on British roads, and in supermarket re-charging spaces. And it’s not just for worthy tree huggers. Big car manufacturers are queuing up to race in Formula E. Ariel are developing a 1180bhp supercar which will be astonishing. At TT Zero the best bikes average 120mph, albeit for just one lap of the Isle of Man. There’s an electric revolution coming in off-road sport and for 2019 a Motogp support series, the Motoe World Cup, will use race versions of Energica’s Ego sportsbike. But can electricity ever power a bike that works for those of us who’re in love with the romance of motorcycling? The Italian made Energica, with its claimed 80kw (109bhp) motor is probably the closest we’ve so far come. Energicas are made by the CRP Group, a high-tech engineering outfit, based at Modena in Italy. Their first electric bike was launched in 2014, and there is now a three model range. The Ego sportsbike, the naked Eva, and now the Eva Esse Esse9 (named after the Italian SS9 road), an uprated version of the Eva. The ‘special’ bike we’re riding also has an alloy belly pan, lovely Oz spoked wheels and silly number boards from a child’s tricycle.
At a glance, the angular shapes of the Esse Esse9 could clothe a conventional motorcycle, and the component list is typical for limited production Italian exotica. 43mm fully adjustable Öhlins forks, beautiful Oz spoked wheels (gold rim front, black rim rear) with retro style Pirelli Phantom tyres, Bitubo rear shock absorber bolted to a cast alloy swingarm, Brembo four piston radial calipers, alloy handlebars, TFT colour dash, Bosch ABS and elegantly machined alloy footrests and frame components. What’s not conventional are the gubbins around which the steel tubular trellis frame is constructed. Substantial cast alloy casings house an 11.7kwh battery and 80kw electric motor with reduction gear. All the clever control units, the fast charger and other baffling geek gubbins are housed under the dummy tank cover which also features a neat illuminated symbol that lights up when you turn the bike on or off. Riding it couldn’t be simpler. Key in, key on, sidestand up. Press the starter button and hold on the front brake to activate the power unit. Then twist. And go. Brakes are conventional, but the only thing the left hand does is operate the switchgear, and the left foot is out of a job too. So the rider just concentrates on going, stopping and steering. Has that reduced the challenge? Yes, maybe. But so did removing hand gear changes, manual oil pumps and separate ignition controls and most people don’t want them back. There are subtleties. Four riding modes – Eco, Urban, Rain and Sport, switchable ABS and, here’s another novelty, regenerative braking which can be dialled up, or turned off, to suit rider preference. With it switched off you get a two-stroke like lack of engine braking when you enter a corner, which can be fun. With it turned up you can challenge yourself to touch the brakes as little
‘Can electricity ever power a bike for those of us in love with the romance of motorcycling?’
as possible. Level three (of four) was perfect for me. The battery life boost from this must be marginal, but it feels good. When you use regenerative braking the rear light pulses. Add the conventional brakes and the brake light comes on in the conventional way. The dash tells you how much battery life you’ve got, and how much range you’ve got left. Energica claim that the Esse Esse will do 93 miles on a full charge. Well maybe, but only if you are dawdling around in Eco mode. The addictive thrust of the Eva makes that a struggle. We couldn’t get it out of Sport mode, or stop riding it in a fully committed manner so only managed just over 50 miles from fully charged to stopped beside the road, two miles from the office, phoning for someone to come out with the van. When battery power gets critical the bike slows you down to preserve power, till it’s only doing 30mph. And then it stops. That 50-mile range sounds bad. It is bad. But I ran out of power deliberately to find out what happens. In the manner of dodgy computers, if you turn it off, wait a couple of minutes, and then turn it back on again it’ll keep going (slowly) for a couple more miles. So we didn’t actually need the van. The bike comes with two re-charging cables. One can be plugged into a domestic 3-pin 240v AC socket. The other has a ‘Type 2’ plug for fast charging stations (which you could install at home if you wanted). They connect to the bike under the seat, and there’s a security device that stops them being unplugged. Using the threepin lead Energica claim 3.5 hours from zero to fully charged. Using the fast charge they reckon it’s done in 30 minutes. It never worked that fast for me.
So, you’ve effectively got a 40-50 mile range. That means always looping back to home, or zapping between places with charging points, but carrying a bulky cable. It works as a commuter, especially if your employer has a charging point. You leave work on a summer’s afternoon, check the available range, and then take the long way home to use it all up. Plugged into your domestic charger for an overnight boost it costs under two quid to go from zero to 100% charge. And you’ll never need a petrol station again. Energica claim the battery is good for 1200 recharging cycles by which time the capacity will have dropped to 80% of its original capacity. At 40 miles per charge that’s 48,000 miles. Or, if you rode it 40 miles a day, five days a week, 280 weeks or five and a half years. And electric maintenance is almost non- existent, so servicing costs are marginal too. And you don’t pay road tax. The whole of the Energica riding experience is bound up with electric propulsion and the glorious zoooooooom that it delivers, but that zooooooom is as much about the sensation of speed as speed itself. Energica’s 80kw translates into a claimed 109bhp. But on our local dyno it delivered 88bhp at the back wheel. The really impressive figure would have been torque, but we couldn’t work out how to get the rev counter reading needed for the calculation. A datalogged acceleration test gave a 0-60mph figure of 4.2 seconds and a 12.9 second standing quarter. It’s MT-07 territory. The huge battery makes the Esse Esse long and heavy with relatively hard springs and limited rear suspension travel. The handling reminded me of a big old sit-up and beg superbike. The low speed steering is slightly vague, and at high-speed there’s a
‘A compelling sensation of whoosh, and petrol station avoidance. If you get a chance, ride one’
slight tramlining sensation over road surface irregularities. It inspires memories of Suzuki’s 1980 GS1000, especially the high and wide handlebars and the riding position. But don’t worry about pushing the bike around in the garage, or when parking. It’s got a low speed reverse and forward manoeuvre gear. Handy. Because on our scales it weighs almost 300 kilos. Energica have also considered the risk of a silent bike mowing down pedestrians and have engineered in a whining noise to give people something to hear. There are big drawbacks to this bike; range, re-charging times, weight and cost. And for most people there will be at least one deal breaker in that list. Electric vehicles are developing quickly, but can they get to a point to replace petrol, rather than be an alternative option for short rides? It’s all about energy density. Petrol has an energy density of 46.4 MJ (mega joules) per kilogram. The potential in a gallon of unleaded is amazing. But a battery, even a clever Lithium Polymer item as used on the Energica, still has an energy density in low single figures. If you’re waiting for an electric bike that’ll directly replace your touring or trackday machine it may be a while. In the meantime, what electrics have to offer now is a compelling sensation of whoosh, commuter capability and petrol station avoidance. If you get a chance, ride one.