“Ducati Electric Racer,” “The Evolution of Michelin Sustainable Tires,” and “Changes in Chargers” | The Current State of the 2025 MotoE Electric Motorcycle Race

How will the FIM MotoE World Championship change in the 2025 season? How have the machines and tires evolved? We bring you the details with interviews from the field.

The evolution of Ducati’s electric racer V21L

The FIM MotoE World Championship is a championship contested by electric motorcycles that began in 2019. The race machine is the V21L, an electric racer developed by Ducati for MotoE from 2023. Michelin is the tire supplier.

A total of seven MotoE races are scheduled for this season, with the opening race in France being held alongside the sixth round of the MotoGP series, the French Grand Prix.

There have been several changes and evolutions in MotoE 2025. One of them is the Ducati V21L.

The battery pack has been revamped, with the number of cells reduced by 192 from the previous 1,152 to 960. Although the number of cells has been reduced, 5Ah cells have been used instead of the previous 4.2Ah, so there is no change in power or range. As a result, the battery pack has become 8.2kg lighter. However, the shape and size of the battery pack itself remain unchanged.

Speaking about this, Ducati’s e-mobility director, Roberto Canet, in an interview at the French rally, explained, “The battery pack shell is made from carbon fibre and is designed to have torsional and lateral rigidity. Therefore, we decided not to change the shape in order to provide the rider with the same feeling.”

The team is also planning to change the rear rims, which will not be used in the opening race in France but will be introduced from the second race in the Netherlands.

“Until now, we’ve been using rims made for regular commercial bikes, which means rear rims with rubber dampers. But with internal combustion engine bikes, the torque delivery is very unstable, so you need to put rubber inside the rim, whereas with electric bikes, the torque delivery is very smooth and linear. There’s no vibration like with an internal combustion engine, so there’s no need to dampen the vibration. So we got rid of that rubber and were able to make a thinner rim and save weight.”

“The traction control is also a little different from before, because previously the same mapping was used for the whole circuit. Starting this year, we have introduced adjustable traction control for each sector, just like in MotoGP. This means that riders can switch the traction control for each sector.”

Additionally, the team has been given new anti-wheelie mapping and a change to a lower friction chain has resulted in a slight increase in power.

As a result, the vehicle weight went from 225 kg to 216.2 kg. The lighter car improved lap times, with the all-time lap record at the French event being broken, at 1 minute 39.545 seconds (the 2024 record was 1 minute 39.882 seconds). The top speed also broke the previous record at the event, reaching 255 km/h (253 km/h at the 2024 French event).

Charger changes and impacts

The charger will be changed for MotoE 2025. Since the first year in 2019, MotoE has used a charger with a battery specially developed by Enel, who was also the title sponsor, to charge the machines.

However, Enel withdrew from MotoE in 2024. Enel’s largest shareholder is the Italian government’s Ministry of Economy and Finance, and when the Italian government changed, Enel’s management also changed. Enel decided to focus on soccer sponsorship and withdrew from MotoE.

Enel announced its withdrawal from MotoE in August 2024. Most Western companies start budgetary considerations in September, meaning MotoE was unable to find a new title sponsor.

According to Kane, there was no impact on the development of the V21L, but that doesn’t mean there were no other impacts at all.

Take the annual calendar, for example. As mentioned above, Enel chargers were equipped with batteries. This was because, until now, the circuit’s power grid had not been able to charge all 18 MotoE machines, the number of riders in each race. Enel solved this problem by creating chargers with built-in batteries, which contributed to charging in the paddock. Portable chargers were also introduced, which were used to charge machines on the grid (until 2024, the battery consumption from leaving the pits to arriving on the grid for one lap was charged on the grid).

With Enel withdrawing from the season, the chargers will no longer be available, meaning the 18 cars will have to be charged using the circuit’s power grid. As a result, some circuits can handle this and others cannot, meaning the number of races has been reduced from eight in the 2024 season to seven this season.

When I interviewed MotoE Executive Director Nicolas Goubert at the French event, he had this to say about the charging environment this season:

“This year’s charger is new, and the difference with the previous one is that it doesn’t have a built-in battery. It’s the same as the chargers (for electric cars, etc.) you find on public roads. The Enel charger has a built-in battery, so it can charge even when there is less power on the circuit.”

“But this season we’re using normal chargers. The charging power of the V21L is 20kW per bike, which is the same as last year, but for 18 bikes we need about 400kW. It’s not easy to secure this amount of power on a circuit. At the end of last season, before deciding on this year’s calendar, we contacted each circuit and asked, ‘Can you supply this much power?’ and that’s how we decided on the calendar.”

The 2025 model will use a charger without a battery. It is a charger from EVESCO, the EV charging and energy storage division of Power Sonic, an American battery technology company.

“However, when we started MotoE with Enel in 2019 (although we had approached them even earlier), we spoke to all the circuits and asked them, ‘How much power can you provide?’ Every circuit replied, ‘400kW is absolutely impossible.’ So Enel built a special charger to solve the charging problem.”

“However, when I asked the same question at the end of last year, some places said it was possible. The situation has changed in six years. I think both the circuit facilities and the mindset of the people have changed. I think it will take a little more time, but I think things will change in five or ten years. It will take time, though.”

Goubert hopes that the fact that charging is possible without using “special” devices like Enel’s chargers will make people who see the MotoE see it as “uncomplicated,” making it easier for them to accept electric bikes. The more complicated something is, the less likely people are to think it’s something they can use. In that sense, Goubert believes this “change” will be positive for the future.

Michelin’s percentage of sustainable materials exceeds 50% for both front and rear

The tires supplied by Michelin to MotoE are made from sustainable materials, another feature of the MotoE championship.

The percentage of sustainable materials used has been increasing every year, reaching 58% for the front and 56% for the rear in 2025. In 2024, a rear tire with a mesh pattern was announced, which attracted attention, and for 2025 the same pattern will also be designed on the front. This unique pattern does not affect the tire’s performance, and will disappear after a few laps. It is simply a design that symbolizes the tire being made from sustainable materials (without this design, at first glance the tire would look no different from the tires used in MotoGP).

MotoE will be supplied with one compound and will use the same tire throughout the season.

This is how we have explained the changes and evolution of MotoE in the 2025 season. MotoE electric motorcycle racing is a new type of race that continues to evolve technologically.