Next year’s electric-powered MotoE series has sparked the interest of all manufacturers, but is motorcycling ready to follow F1 cars into hybrid power?

Not according to Ducati’s Gigi Dall’Igna, “I don’t know if electric bikes are the only option for the future but for sure they are one option, so we follow it. But I don’t have a clear vision about the future.

“But hybrid power? I think it is too expensive for this world at the moment.”

Other delegates to the conference, including Yamaha and KTM, said they were working already in the electric bike area, but eschewed the potential of a hybrid future.

KTM’s Sebastian Risse expanded. “Perhaps in ten years we need to talk about an alternative to MotoGP – but motorcycle simplicity is important, and we need to keep that, so I don’t think there is a case for hybrid power.”

By Michael Scott

Enel MotoE bike, Qatar MotoGP 2018