After Harley, Ducati also launches electric bikes

Dominik Bärlocher

3.8.2020

Translation: machine translated

Ducati is presenting four new electric bikes, including three with the iconic Scrambler branding. But many of us are asking the same question: who rides a folding e-bike?

Here's the Ducati Scrambler.

Here's the bike version of the Scrambler, for commuters and those who don't want 79bhp with 800cc.

The Ducati SCR-E is one of three new electric bikes that Ducati has presented in recent days. This makes the Italian company the second major motorbike manufacturer to get involved in e-bikes.

Big tyres to prevent falls

The Italdesign studio was responsible for developing the e-bikes. He was very clearly inspired by motorbikes. The three new electric bikes have one thing in common: fairly wide 4-inch tyres, or 10.16cm (although Ducati talks about 11cm width on its official website). This could be interesting, especially in big cities, as with wide tyres the wheels no longer get stuck in tram tracks and the risk of falling is therefore limited.

The battery of the Ducati Urban-E, as well as that of the other models in the series, the Ducati SCR-E and the Ducati SCR-E Sport, is fully integrated into the frame, as are the lights, which come on automatically in the dark thanks to a sensor. In this way, Ducati is making a commitment to urban safety. After all, thugs love anything that can be removed from a bike without tools.

The motors on the folding electric bikes are surprisingly powerful and integrated into the rear wheel. All three models have a 250W brushless motor by 8Fun, known in Asia as Bafang, inserted into the rear wheel. But the battery performance differs.

• Ducati Urban-E: 36 V, 10.5 Ah, 378 Wh, up to 70 km range
• Ducati SCR-E: 36 V, 10.4 Ah, 374 Wh, up to 70 km range
• Ducati SCR-E Sport: 36 V, 13 Ah, 468 Wh, up to 80 km range

So more than enough for commuters. The three electric bikes should be available from September.

The only question that remains is: what, apart from the mudguard, makes the SCR-E Sport a "sport" model? Is anyone really going to buy it and say "I'm going to use it for sport"?

A commitment more than a marketing gag

The three e-bikes for commuters are Ducati's second attempt at the electric bike market this season. A few weeks ago, the manufacturer presented the Ducati E-Scrambler. The big brother of folding bikes has a Shimano Steps E7000 motor, 250 watts of power, which skims the tarmac with 60 Nm. In other words: a bike with guts.

Here too, Ducati called on external expertise. This time it asked Thok, a manufacturer of electric mountain bikes. L'e-Scrambler est déjà disponible.

The future belongs to electromobility, and it looks like Ducati has understood that.

Dominik Bärlocher

Senior Editor

dominik.baerlocher@digitecgalaxus.ch

Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.