50 Year-Old: The Inspiration Behind New Electric Ducati Motorcycle

After decades of building motorcycles with a combustion engine as their power basis, the notion of an electric Ducati, at least shortly, according to senior management is not in the legendary Italian builder projects.

“Will we produce an electric Ducati soon? No,” Ducati V.P. for Global Sales, Francesca Milicia, stated publicly a couple of months back. “We think that for the kind of machine we make presently, an electric motorcycle cannot guarantee the pleasure, the range, the weight, etc., that Ducati riders expect,” he explained.

However, Milicia might have to revise his position following the presentation of the new E.V. concept dubbed 860-E from Italdesign Giugiaro S.P.A. The company is responsible for the 1974 Ducati 860 GT and a slew of iconic automobile designs for the likes of Ferrari and Maserati.

Considering the already established relationship between the design firm and the motorcycle builder on the recent Ducati Urban-E project, a production fold-able electric bicycle, the possibility of an electric Ducati motorcycle might just happen sooner than later.

“Do you remember the Ducati 860 we had the chance to design back in the 70s? It was so futuristic it was probably way too ahead of its time. That’s why today, almost 50 years later, we asked our designers to re-imagine this model,” Italdesign.

With inspiration drawn from the 860 GT, the new fully electric and quiet Ducati 860-E concept keeps some of the iconic lines of the original, “like the tank hull continuing under the saddle.” The design outfit also preserved the form of the original circular headlight though updated it to a doughnut ring of L.E.D. Lights.