Over the past few years we’ve seen more and more electric motorcycles coming to light and while they have been seen running upward of 10k$ in some cases it’s nice to see some change, ok so the cost of the latest from Matra isn’t exactly chump change coming in at more than most vacation home rental‘s even cost. Now the Matra MS1 looks more like a bicycle and less like a Harley not to mention the fact that this isn’t a Electric engine only bike as it also has pedals to allow for a little leg driven backup power in case the 62 mile drive distance isn’t enough for you between recharges.
Not to mention this is the first bike like this that I have seen to date that also has regenerative brakes that will pull power back into the battery as you apply breaks just like high end cars. Now I find this most interesting because of places like where I live that are very hilly I could burn battery going uphill and then ride the brake on the way back down, and while this isn’t 100% efficient it will definitly improve the drive distance.
The only downside I’ve seen so far is that the bike has a speed limiter that cuts power to the pedals when the bike hits 28mph, which I’m sure isn’t all negative considering 28mph on a bike isn’t exactly slow, but then again I’m also 100% sure that their will be a hacking guide to disable or remove the speed limiter if the company doesn’t offer a guide themselves for the speed freaks.
As I said the bike is cheaper than most other electric bikes, and while I don’t exactly like the green and white motif, the rumored price of just under 5k$, $4,951 to be precise seems darn nice, though I think we’d see a lot more of these on the road if they could get it down to about $1,500.
Source: Engadget
