Energica Ego Corsa MotoE Racebike - Video Review

In the span of a Grand Prix weekend there's plenty of time for the bikes to charge before their various sessions. It's not like a trackday where you're out once every hour. These guys are riding once, maybe twice, a day. That's a lot of downtime where they can charge. There's a pretty robust traveling infrastructure (I think by Enel?) that goes to each of the MotoE rounds specifically to charge the bikes, too.

As to your second point, the matter of voltage draw from the motor as the battery depletes is a legitimate concern, but the longest race they did last year was seven laps (the rest were five laps). They did this twice: at the San Marino GP at Misano and at Valencia. Coincidentally, MotoE raced twice at both rounds. According to MotoGP.com, the total race distance after seven laps at Misano was 29.582 km (18.4 miles) – the longest race, by distance traveled, that the MotoE bikes experienced all year. Valencia was 28.035 km (17.4 miles). Coming back with 40% still in the "tank" after a race doesn't make sense.

Why? A few reasons. For one, the Formula E electric car racing series routinely depletes the entirety of the car's battery at the end of each race. We know this because they show battery percentage for each car right there on the screen for those watching the TV broadcast. Cars will often cross the finish line with single-digit percentages and have just enough to get back to parc ferme to spray the champagne. Sometimes, if the team calculates wrong, a car will run out of battery with the finish line in sight! (This actually happened, btw). Unlike road-going electrics, the race cars are programmed to give full power until it has nothing left. E-Street cars and bikes will turn down the power when the battery is low to give you a fighting chance to find a charger.

Two, and maybe more relevant, the Lightfighter electric racebike I rode last year (you did read the stories I wrote about that bike, right?) is equipped with a battery less than half the capacity of the Ego Corsa. Yet it's capable of roughly 25 miles at full stick. As a result, the Lightfighter is nearly 200 lbs lighter than the Ego Corsa. Like the Formula E cars, Lightfighter is programmed to give everything before it runs out of juice. At low battery levels I've felt the bike go slightly slower to cope with the voltage draw that comes from cranking the throttle wide open, but the drop off in performance was negligible. For an 18-mile race, Lightfighter could easily give it everything.

This is why I was, and still am, confused by the 40% remaining quote. If this is true, it seems to me there's untapped performance being left on the table. Or a smaller, lighter battery that could be used to achieve the same results. Ultimately, I defer to the fact there are engineers far more intelligent than me doing what they do for a reason.