Electric Motorcycle Guide (2025) – Is the future really electric?
Are electric motorcycles the clean, green future of biking, or a soulless technological dead-end for gullible virtue-signallers? Well, the answer is…
…n’t clear yet. But while we can’t be sure what motorcycling will look, sound or smell like 20 years from now, we know exactly where electric motorcycles stand today. In the UK, sales are tiny. Just 3750 new electric motorcycles, mopeds and scooters were registered in 2024, or 3.2% of the total two-wheeled market. And it’s not only small, it’s shrinking. Sales have dropped 40% from their peak in 2022. It’s a similar story across Europe, with electric motorcycle sales in the five biggest markets down 25% in a year.
Poor sales have gone hand-in-hand with a string of electric biking brands filing for bankruptcy or entering receivership recently, including Energica, Arc, Cake, Sondors, Fuell and Ubco. Faced with such a volatile market and dwindling demand, it’s easy to see why established biking brands have been so hesitant to dip their toe in the water. Until now.
Because, like it or not, there are signs that change could be looming on the horizon. In 2025 all four Japanese firms will have an electric scooter or motorcycle on sale. Honda has committed to put a full-size electric roadster in production by the end of this year, then 30 electric models on sale by the end of the decade. And Royal Enfield is creating an entire electric sub-brand, Flying Flea, to launch an all-new range of bikes. When motorcycling titans the size of Honda and Royal Enfield are getting involved, it’s definitely time to start paying attention.
So, which electric motorcycles can you buy in 2025, what are the pros and cons of battery-powered biking, and what’s coming in the future?
Which electric motorcycles are available now?
More than 90% of electric two-wheelers sold in the UK make less than 11kW (15bhp), so let’s start at the steadier end of things. The biggest-selling electric scooter in the UK is the Vmoto/Super Soco CPx, a 125cc-equivalent step-thru. If you’re after a way to get through gridlock easily, cheaply and cleanly, there’s now a decent variety of electric scooters to choose from, including those from familiar names (Honda, Yamaha, BMW) as well as newer ones (Yadea, Segway, Horwin). But for sheer volume, Vmoto has led the way.
The company also took a big step in 2024 by launching the Vmoto Stash, one of the most promising and practical 125cc-equivalent electric motorcycles you can buy. But if its Adrian Morton-designed lines are a bit too modern for your tastes, you might be more taken by the retro-flavoured Maeving RM1S. The A1 electric motorcycle class has also recently welcomed well-known biking brands in the form of Kawasaki’s Ninja and Z e-1 siblings, as well as the curious, colourful and compact BMW CE-02.
Stepping up to the next level of power, price and performance brings us to electric veterans Zero, and their 44bhp FXE supermoto. Above this the firm’s range splinters into roadsters and adventurers, with more substantial models suitable for A1 licences (S and DS), as well as A2-compliant options that go even faster and further.
This year the A2-licence class is bolstered by a pair of all-new bikes from Canadian firm Can-Am. Their Pulse roadster and Origin dual-sport make 47bhp, boast innovative water-cooled powertrains, and land in the UK imminently. If you’re after something with a more speed and range still, there’s LiveWire’s three S2 models: the Del Mar, Mulholland and new-for-2025 Alpinista. The trio share the same battery and lively 84bhp motor, differing mostly by wheel sizes, riding position and styling tweaks.
Above all of these sits LiveWire’s flagship ‘One’, a sporty 100bhp streetfighter originally launched back in 2020 with Harley-Davidson branding. But to get the maximum range between recharges we need to return to Zero, whose SR/F roadster, SR/S sports-tourer and DSR/X adventure bike come with the biggest biking batteries you can buy in 2025, making them good for around 100 miles of mixed riding.
While the fledgling electric motorcycle market is clearly far smaller and more limited than the petrol landscape, there’s already a surprising amount of variety. There are options for all licences and experience levels, prices from less than £4000 to over £20k, plus a range of styles including scooters, adventurers, supermotos, roadsters, retros, off-roaders and even a couple of fully-faired sportier options.
Which electric motorcycles are coming in the future?
If none of the above take your fancy, then could there be an electric motorcycle just around the corner that will change your mind? Let’s take a glimpse into the not-so-distant future…
While several firms have scaled back their electric ambition (notably BMW), Honda recently made some big commitments. They say they’ll have 30 electric two-wheel models on sale globally by 2030, with their first full-size electric motorcycle available later this year. So far they’ve only shown a concept of it, the “EV Fun”, and given few details other than a “cruising range of over 100km”. Still, with chassis components including a 180-section rear tyre, Nissin radial brakes and what look to be electronically-adjustable forks, it’s fair to guess we’re looking at something more CB650R than CB125R.
Speaking of electric 125s, Royal Enfield has launched an all-electric sub-brand called “Flying Flea”. The name is taken from a famous lightweight 125cc two-stroke that was parachuted into conflict zones during the Second World War. The prototype “C6” that’s been shown recently has a suitably stylish retro aesthetic, plus a fascinating twin-shock girder front end that’s a neat nod to its namesake. There’s no official word on power, battery size, price or European availability yet, but a company the size and scale of Royal Enfield (who sold nearly a million bikes worldwide in 2024) shouldn’t get their sums too far wrong.
Royal Enfield unquestionably have their sights fixed on the flourishing market for electric two-wheelers in India, where sales jumped 33% to almost 1.15 million bikes in 2024. It seems Suzuki do too, choosing the Bharat Mobility Expo in New Delhi to reveal their first battery-powered scooter: the e-Address. So far it’s only been confirmed to go on sale in India, but Suzuki “expect to be able to announce details of a version of the e-Address for launch into the European market later this year.” On paper the styling and specs might not offer too much to get excited about, but it this does represent the first time that all four Japanese motorcycling giants now have an electric two-wheeler in production – an important milestone.
But what if you couldn’t care less about sensible commuters and just want an electric motorcycle to rip your arms off? What about a ferociously fast superbike that lays down epic, instant torque? With Italian pioneers Energica navigating bankruptcy, and North-American startups Lightning and Damon so far delivering more social media posts than finished motorcycles, will anyone step up with something spicey and sporty?
Today nobody knows electric superbikes better than Ducati, who are about to start their third season supplying bikes for the MotoE World Championship. Ducati are very open about the purpose of the project. “Our goal is to transfer this technology to the street,” says Roberto Canè, Ducati’s Director of E-mobility. “The MotoE team we created is made of both people from Ducati Corse [racing] and production [road bikes]. This group will take care in the future about the electrification inside Ducati. We think there is a lot of potential in electrification.” So, could there be a road-legal electric superbike in Ducati’s future? “Yes… but not immediately,” says Canè. The sticking point, he says, is the energy density of today’s batteries. As things stand, it’s unlikely to make commercial sense for Ducati to put their V21L race bike on the road. But if a new type of battery came along, all bets are off…
How do electric motorcycles work?
To build an electric motorcycle, you need two things: a battery and a motor. Batteries are, kinda obviously, the equivalent of electric fuel tanks, but instead of carrying litres of petrol they store kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy within packs of lithium-ion cells. A 125-equivalent scooter might typically have a 4kWh battery; Zero’s biggest battery is around 17kWh. The bigger the battery pack, the more energy it can store and the further it can take you between charges. But bigger packs also weigh more, cost more and take longer to recharge.
Motors tend to be mounted either within the rear wheel (typically on smaller, less-powerful bikes), or fitted near the swingarm pivot, driving the rear wheel via a chain or belt. Like petrol engines, electric motors can be air-cooled (simpler, lighter, cheaper) or water-cooled (better performance, but heavier and more complex).
As for how they work, all electric drivetrains broadly follow the same process. When you open the throttle a message is sent to something called a motor controller – electric’s equivalent of a fuel injection system. This decides how much current to send from battery to motor. The more current that flows, the harder the motor spins, and the faster you zoom off towards the horizon.
Where things can start to get confusing is the way electric motors are rated for power. Typically they claim two figures – a “maximum power” and a “continuous power”. Maximum power is the more intuitive and familiar, and is directly comparable to a petrol engine’s power claim. Continuous power is a far stranger figure, defined as how much power the motor can sustain continuously for 30 minutes. Don’t ask us why. Weirder yet, it’s this figure, rather than maximum power, which is used to decide what licence you need to ride it. Which brings us to…
What licence do you need for an electric motorcycle?
The same licence as you need to ride a petrol motorcycle: either AM (moped); A1 (125cc / 11kW / 15bhp); A2 (35kW / 47bhp); or A (unrestricted). Where things stray from the familiar is the way electric motorcycles and scooters are rated on their “continuous power”, as explained above.
Generally, electric bikes mostly fit into familiar categories – so moped-equivalent electric scooters are limited to 28mph; 125-equivalent scooters typically do 60-ish mph; bigger electric bikes offer massive acceleration and three-figure top speeds.
But this continuous power malarky means a few bikes slip through the cracks, allowing a rider to legally ride an electric bike with way more performance than its petrol equivalent. Zero, for example, has a range of “11kW” bikes which can be ridden with an A1 licence (or, technically, just a CBT and L-plates if you’re over 17) – even though the bikes themselves can pack as much as 60bhp and hit 80mph. Similarly, LiveWire’s S2 Del Mar is A2-compliant, even though it actually puts out 84bhp, has over 190lb·ft of torque and does 0-60mph in 3 seconds.
Read more about the best A1 and A2 electric bikes here.
How do you charge an electric motorcycle?
Most electric scooters and commuters are charged by simply plugging them into a regular household socket. A full recharge will take several hours, though this depends on the size of the battery and the power of the charger. If you don’t have power where you park overnight, then look for a model with removable batteries so you can bring them into your home (or, even better, workplace) to charge.
Some midrange electric bikes can be charged via a Level 2 AC charger. These are the kind of 7-pin sockets you typically find in supermarket and public car parks, or can get installed at home. Level 2 sockets can put out either 7kW or 22kW of power, but in reality charging speed is bottlenecked by the bike’s onboard charger, which has to turn the AC electricity supply into DC for the battery. Charge times are faster than home charging, but still tend to take well over an hour for a full recharge.
The quickest way to get energy into a battery is via DC rapid charging, where high-power public charging stations inject juice straight into the battery, bypassing the bike’s charger. While this tech is on virtually every electric car on sale today, in the bike world it’s only offered on the high-end LiveWire One, as well as the now-discontinued Energicas. Promisingly though, Honda say their forthcoming roadster will be compatible with DC charging. Charging speeds are around an hour, with 0-80% in about 40 minutes.
What are the pros and cons of electric motorcycles?
Like battery terminals, electric bikes have their – ahem, clears throat – positives and negatives. The downsides are perhaps more glaring. Batteries can’t carry much energy relative to their volume and mass, at least not compared to a tank of petrol. This means electric bikes can’t travel as far between needing a recharge – Zero’s DSR/X has a motorway range of around 85 miles. They’re also far slower to top up once empty, with even the fastest-charging bikes needing around an hour. On paper, that doesn’t look very appealing next to spending a few minutes at a petrol pump. And the riding experience is quite different – less noise, less smell, less vibration and, with no gearbox, less interaction. To some riders, this can all feel rather sterile. Fourth, and finally, they tend to be very expensive too.
The upsides of electric are less obvious and more subtle. They’re typically far cheaper to run, costing just pennies per mile in electricity if charged at home. There’s a lot less to service too – in most cases there’s no oils, coolants or filters to replace, plus no valve clearances to check, all of which cuts running costs. They’re generally easier to ride, with broad, forgiving torque curves and instant acceleration. You can’t stall them, and you can’t be caught in the wrong gear.
But the biggie is their dramatically reduced environmental impact. Even taking into account the energy needed to mine, refine and build the batteries; even considering the source of the energy needed to produce the electricity to charge them; and even accounting for recycling the battery at the end of the bike’s life, the overall lifetime carbon emissions are substantially lower than a petrol bike. A 2024 study by Zemo Partnership estimates that a typical 650cc petrol motorcycle creates more than 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide during its life. For an equivalent electric motorcycle charged using the UK electricity grid, that figure drops to just 3.6 tonnes – a reduction of almost two-thirds.
Are electric motorcycles the next big thing?
The first production electric bike went on sale in the UK in 2007. Eighteen years later it feels like we’re still no closer to knowing how big a part electric will play in motorcycling’s future. Whatever your opinion and personal preference, the theory supporting them is robust: electric motors turn energy into motion two to three times more efficiently than a combustion engine. Plus we’re much further along with creating low-carbon electricity than low-carbon petrol – for example, the UK’s rapidly-decarbonising electricity grid was cleaner than ever in 2024.
Clearly things aren’t that simple, or we’d all be riding one. Electric tech is hard to package on a bike, especially given the limitations of lithium-ion batteries’ power density. Range is short (especially riding at high speed), charging is slow, prices are high. And on top of all those obstacles is perhaps the most difficult problem to solve: most riders just aren’t interested. There are signs that we’re starting to thaw, slightly, and perhaps things will change when a new generation of riders arrives unburdened by decades of expectations and associations with combustion engines. For now electric motorcycles are tough to design, but riders are an even tougher audience.
All this is true as far as leisure motorcycling goes. At the smaller, more practical commuter end of bikes, things look a lot brighter for electric. Range tends to be less important for urban riding, while lengthy recharge times aren’t a problem if you can plug in at home or work. Plus when it comes to daily transport, riders generally aren’t so hung up on the whole “soul / character / image / status” thing. Running costs, ease of use and minimal servicing are far more important – all areas electric scooters excel at. As overcrowded cities expand their use of low-emission and/or clean-air zones, expect electric two-wheelers to thrive.
Outside of urban transport, the question of electric motorcycles’ future depends on two things. First, how many years the sale of new petrol motorcycles has left before legislation intervenes. In the UK, the sale of new petrol and diesel cars is due to end in 2035, but there’s no confirmed date for motorcycles or scooters yet. And second, whether any of the much-hyped low-carbon alternatives (such as hydrogen, biofuels and synthetic e-fuels) ever manage to progress beyond their current level – which largely amounts to a lot of ambitious talk, and not much else. For all their downsides, limitations and tiny sales, electric motorcycles are at least already here, in production and available to buy. And in that regard, perhaps we don’t need to think of electric bikes as the future when they’re already with us today.
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