I think it looks great, but it doesn’t matter because they have no plans for it to go into production - it’s purely a prototype to develop the technology which they hope to utilise in future projects which currently would have to be smaller capacity urban oriented bikes as that’s the only segment where the technology appears to be really viable. They also don’t appear to believe that there is going to be a quantum leap forward in battery tech anytime soon, just incremental improvements.
Hopefully by the time we get to 2035 the picture will look very different or internal combustion will get a reprieve powered by synthetic fuel or hydrogen.
We may be living in the golden age of motorcycles right now. Let’s make the most of it
Seems like a safe bet, considering for the past couple of decades I’ve been seeing articles about R&D departments and scientists coming up with fantastic new battery technology, just a couple of years from being practical, and then hearing nothing afterwards. We’re still on decades old lithium ion or lithium iron phosphate technology.
That was a much better interview than I expected. I get bored with over-enthusiastic fan-boy interviewers putting (questionable) style over substance in the hope for more ‘likes’ but that kept my interest to the end.
I’m a little disappointed that Triumph aren’t bringing something to production based on the TE-1 but I’ve no doubt they will in time. Quite what they’ll come up with as a smaller capacity machine I’m not sure. It would be tricky to replicate the traditional bikes (Bonneville, Speed Twin etc.) as electric vehicles without losing the heritage look and feel.
The observation about Moore’s Law (actually doubling of transistors across an integrated circuit rather than a power prediction, but obviously related) not applying to batteries is a good reality check. It’s also true that huge money is pouring in to alternatives to fossil fuels so progress will still be rapid. Sometimes it appears not much is happenng but the R&D departments and universities are cracking on.
