Mission Motors Racing New Electric Motorcycle Against Time

“Absolutely awesome!” is how Jit Bhattacharya the COO of Mission Motors based in San Francisco, CA described a recent test run of their Mission One electric motorcycle. With Tesla already proving that an electric sports car can outperform its gas-powered predecessors, Mission Motors is seeking to show that electric motorcycles are every bit as capable at high-performance endeavors as their four wheeled counterparts.

A major hurdle Mission Motors and every other electric vehicle would-be firm has had to contend with is that of storing power. Whereas automobiles have plenty of space for batteries, squeezing all that juice between two legs and two wheels is a major challenge. However, Mission Motors is well on their way to solving the juice issue. Already their motorcycle can reach speeds of over 150mph and travel around 150 miles on a single charge while weighing only slightly more than a similarly powered gas motorcycle.

As a startup company funded by venture capitalists, Mission Motors finds itself in the position of a race against time. They have milestones, performance measures and production levels they must meet if they want to get their bikes to market. They are not the only company working on electric motorcycles and they will not be the first to hit the market with a working model but their goal is to be the best high-performance motorcycle available and offer models that look the same as their gas powered competition but feel much differently.

“We are all motorcycle aficionados here, we are drawn to this industry because we love motorcycles and the freedom they bring. But until you’ve felt the unbelievable power coming from a virtually silent motor, you have never really experienced how good a motorcycle can feel,” says Jit Bhattacharya.

The first production all-electric high-performance models are expected to be available in 2010 and will fetch somewhere in the upper $60k range.

[photo credit: Mission Motors]