Set to ignite the World Championship in some specific rounds, the new FIM MotoE Cup promises to show the world what electric motorcycles can do in the racing world. And while we’re still far away from the first official race of the season, the FIM MotoE Cup riders are now testing at Jerez circuit, where today they’ve completed the first of three days of testing.
In the morning it was Frenchman Mike di Meglio (Marc VDS) who set the best lap time with a 1m50.105s, completing a total of seven laps before needing to go back to the pit lane to recharge the battery on his Energica Ego Corsa. Back in November, at the first MotoE test, Bradley Smith set the best lap with 1m50.265s, meaning that Energica and the teams have done a good job during the Winter break.
At the afternoon the riders expected to have another 45-minute test session, but the bikes weren’t fully charged to 100% of battery capacity, and that meant the afternoon test session was only a 30-minute session.
But even the longer than expected charge times didn’t stop the riders to push the Energica Ego Corsa to the limit, and lap times went down fast. Eric Granado (Avintia Esponsorama) managed to squeeze a total of 9 laps before the battery ran out, and on those laps, he also lowered the best lap time to a 1m48.984s.
Impressive as this may be, it’s still very far away from the lap times of other racing categories that have tested at the Spanish racetrack recently. The Energica Ego Corsa, with its 160 hp and 240 kg of weight isn’t able to go around Jerez at a time similar to those obtained by Moto3 riders. Back in February, Jaume Masiá, during a Moto3 pre-season test session, lapped Jerez with a 1m45.241s. That’s near 3.7 seconds faster than MotoE!
But the difference for more powerful race bikes is even bigger: Takaaki Nakagami set the best time for a MotoGP bike in a test in November with 1m37.945s, in February Brad Binder set the best lap time for Moto2 with 1m40.982s, in January, Jonathan Rea set the best lap time for a Superbike with 1m39.152s, while Federico Caricasulo took his Supersport 600 machine around Jerez on a time of 1m42.529s.
Of course, this is just the beginning of the development of the electric motorcycles that will be used on the first ever FIM MotoE Cup, and tomorrow we expect that the riders are able to achieve better lap times as they find the right setup for their bikes.