Ducati concludes its first season as sole supplier of the FIM Enel MotoE World Championship with great satisfaction. In less than two years from the first circuit laps of the 21L prototype, the Bologna based company has developed, produced and put on the track 18 high-performance and reliable motorcycles, giving rise to a hard-fought championship which saw Mattia Casadei become the first world champion of MotoE in the final round at Misano. The V21L prototype, which came about from the collaboration between the Ducati R&D department and Ducati Corse, is a unique electric motorcycle, which integrates technical solutions never adopted before for the battery pack, engine and inverter.

The Ducati MotoE is the MotoGP of electric motorbikes and ever since the first tests, which took place last March on the Jerez circuit, all the world championship riders have praised the performance and riding dynamics. The V21L prototype has a total weight of 225 kg (with a weight distribution of 54% at the front and 46% at the rear) and a wheelbase of 1,471 mm. The engine has maximum power and torque values of 110 kW (150 hp) and 140 Nm respectively (technical data of the bike here). The battery pack represents a unique example in the world of electric motorbikes for technical solutions and performance. It weighs 110 kg, has a case in carbon fibre and is made up of 1,152 cylindrical battery cells of the “21700” type, i.e., cells 70 mm long and 21 mm in diameter, the best performing cells available on the market when the MotoE project started. Their small dimensions have allowed Ducati technicians to develop a battery pack with cells distributed in such a way as to fill all the available space inside the motorbike, a solution never seen before. What makes the V21L battery pack even more unique is the liquid cooling, which manages to maintain a constant temperature in each cell and therefore allows the bike to be recharged immediately after each use and guarantees constant performance from the first to the last lap of the race.

Thanks to the high performance and reliability of the V21L prototype, the MotoE World Championship was characterized by being very evenly balanced, with a highly competitive level on the part of the participating riders and teams. In the 16 races held, out of the 18 registered riders, eight won at least one race and ten, or more than half of the grid, reached the podium at least once with four riders who remained mathematically in contention for the world title until the final round.

In the races, the V21L was able to improve the previous lap times on each circuit, even lowering the lap records for the category by margins of up to three seconds. Moreover, in almost every circuit the V21L prototype was also able to break records in the Moto3 category. In the French Grand Prix, the first of the season, all the riders on the grid were faster than the previous record.

The Ducati V21L was also recently the protagonist of the 2023 edition of IAA MOBILITY in Munich, where it was displayed with a special livery inspired by the racing history of the Bologna based motorcycle manufacturer. The new graphics feature Ducati Red combined with white of the number plates, gold details and black of the exposed carbon fibre and were created by the Centro Stile Ducati in collaboration with Aldo Drudi specifically for the occasion.

The next development tests on the Ducati MotoE will begin shortly, with the aim of further improving the performance of this fascinating and ambitious project in view of the world championship season. In fact, the commitment to experimenting with innovative technologies continues, to acquire further experience and skills preparatory to the future realisation of a Ducati electric sports bike that is sporty, light, exciting and therefore able to satisfy all enthusiasts of the brand from Borgo Panigale.

Here are the numbers for the 2023 MotoE World Championship:

• 35 Ducati people involved in the “V21L” project
• 33 years is the average age of the Ducati people involved in the project
• 23 “V21L” Ducatis produced (18 delivered to the teams, 5 as spares always ready for use in the Ducati garage)
• 471 the total number of laps of the track completed
• 38,500 kilometres covered overall
• 1080 the number of recharges made
• 26,496 battery cells used in total
• 1.4 MWh the amount of energy regenerated during braking
• 282 km/h the top speed reached (Italian GP, Mugello, 10 June 2023)
• 2.5s the average 0-100 km/h acceleration value recorded by the V21L
• 2.2s the average improvement in lap times compared to the previous season
• 9.27s the average gap in the top-10, 2.77s the minimum (German GP, race 1)
• 3.04s the average gap of the top-5, 0.49s the minimum (Catalunya GP, race 2)
• 0.43s the average gap between the winner and second (including 3 wet races), 0.021s the minimum (San Marino GP, race 1)
• 10 riders on the podium (out of 18 participants)
• 8 different winners (out of 18 participants) demonstrating the even balance of the championship
• 7 teams (out of 9) on the podium
• 5 teams (out of 9) won at least one race, further proof of the level of the participants
• 10 positions recovered in the best comeback by a rider in the race (Austrian GP, race 1) – there was certainly no lack of spectacle!

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Ducati MotoE

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