Electric Motorcycles in the Tour de France?

Interesting question posted on the Tour de France subreddit…

This was my reply:

Let me frame my response with this – I have followed the Tour de France twice (once backpacking and once on a gas-powered motorcycle). And I have ridden an electric motorcycle from San Francisco to New York City. So I have some relevant experience…

One of the biggest impacts on electric motorcycle range is aerodynamics; an electric motorcycle will have nearly twice the range in the city vs highway because of aero.

Considering the slower average speeds that the electric motorcycles would follow the race at, there are a handful of electric motorcycles that could “probably” handle the Tour de France. But the organizers and camera crews don’t want “probably”. They need certainty.

Also understand that the tour travels through rural France, often staying in small towns. The teams and the organizers and the media overwhelm these small towns in terms of hotels and restaurants and water…and probably electricity too. I doubt that these small towns have the charging infrastructure to recharge several dozen electric motorcycles overnight, and it’s not outside the realm that trying to charge these electric motorcycles all at once could bring the local grid down.

Just imagine the situation where a small town can’t support the charging needs of the tour electric motorcycles, leading to many motorcycles not being 100% in the morning and then not being able to ride the day’s stage or running out of charge miles from a charging station. That would be disastrous.

There would be a lot of benefits using electric motorcycles but I don’t think that we are there yet. But using them for one-day events is definitely possible. And I think they are already being used for that. Zero Motorcycles, one of the largest electric motorcycle makers, has recently moved their headquarters from California to the Netherlands, so maybe they are making inroads in the one day races there.