Dutch students from Eindhoven University of Technology designed and built an electric motorcycle to travel around the world in 80 days. They want to show that electric transport is the next step on our way to a sustainable future. They are coming to Las Cruces Thursday, October 13th. After being escorted into town by local motorcycle clubs, the bike and the team will be on the new downtown Plaza de Las Cruces at 7 pm.
With a top speed of 100 MPH this is a serious bike – the first electric touring motorcycle. It can go 236 miles on a charge, and they can change its batteries in 7 minutes. It weighs 750 pounds fully loaded, and can hit 60 mph from a cold start in under 5 seconds.
The team of 25 students has already driven the bike through Europe and Asia (Germany, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China). They flew it to Seattle, and have started down the West Coast, planning to stop in Phoenix before coming to Las Cruces. Their route across North America ends up in New York City, and from there they fly to Paris to ride the last leg back to Holland, a total of over 13,000 miles. Student team STORM left on August 14th 2016 and hope to be back home in the Netherlands on November 2nd, exactly 80 days around the world.
STORM Eindhoven students are meeting with influential business, academic, and political figures along the way, hoping to speed adoption of electric transport. They also have had some amazing cultural experiences, including gracious Iranian hospitality, delicious Chinese food, and getting to join a Central Asian festival celebrating nomadic cultures that they say was part rodeo and part rock concert.
STORM Eindhoven students have been working on the design and production of their electric motorcycle since 2014. Their goal is to improve the image of sustainable transport around the world. Their electric touring motorcycle is the epitome of what electric vehicles could be in their eyes: silent, efficient, and autonomous.
A special aspect of the motorcycle is the battery pack they designed. It consists of 24 cartridges that each store 28.5 kWh of energy. This gives the motorcycle a range of 236 miles on a single charge. But the bike can operate with fewer batteries, depending on how far one wants to go. This makes it much lighter, resulting in a sportier ride.
Wherever they stop, they recharge it using the local grid. Their presentation Thursday (on the new downtown Plaza de Las Cruces at 7 pm) will include some details of the design experience and stories from their journey.