Piaggo already sells the MP3 leaning trike while KTM has the
Freeride electric scrambler.
Under an initiative called Range of Electric Solution L-category
Vehicles (Resolve), they will lead a 13-member group tasked by the European
Union to develop narrow track trikes and quad bikes with wheel tilting for
European cities by 2020.
The two largest bike builders in Europe will work with Bosch and
Magneti-Marelli and five universities to make electric bikes to lure drivers out
of one person cars and onto smaller electric transport units that emit no
exhaust fumes in the city.
The bikes will have 4 kW electric motors and a top speed of
45 km/h. The double tilting wheels up front provides a lot of stability and grip
in corners and at a stroke remove the motorists’ fear that the bike will lose
grip or slide.
The Community Research and Development Information Service (Cordis)
said in a statement this shift in city wheels will not be without challenges,
the main one being that most car drivers do not consider bikes either a viable
or comfortable mode of transport.
Hence the Resolve mission to make bikes so cheap, safe and easy to
ride that only a dunce driver will want to fume in traffic.
Or in Cordis’s more diplomatic statement: “The project will develop
components and systems that meet the very low cost requirements for the segment,
particularly modular and scalable LV-specific electric powertrains and battery
architectures. At the same time the project will deliver an exciting and
attractive ELV driving experience by proposing new concepts (tilting and narrow
track), while keeping the vehicle energy consumption at very low level.”
Cordis said all these advances will be demonstrated in two tilting
four-wheelers, although even cheaper electric scooters will also form part of
the programme.
Piaggo is co-ordinating the process, which started with the Horizon
2020 innovation program, an €80 billion initiative aimed at securing Europe’s
global competitiveness.
