Yamaha has confirmed that the PES1 sports bike and the PED1 dirt bike will be available to the public ‘in the near future’.
The PES1, which stands for ‘Passion, Electric, Street’ will compete against US-made sports bikes such as Zero S and Brammo Empulse. Yamaha is yet to release concrete performance figures for the bike, but a kerbweight of around 100kg would make it considerably lighter than rivals. The PES1 will also allow riders to switch between manual and automatic transmission modes.
Yamaha’s second offering will cater for the enormous dirt-bike market. The PED1, or ‘Passion, Electric, Dirt’, features the same changeable transmissions as its road-biased sibling but is built to a traditional off-road blueprint. Both will feature a lithium-ion battery supplying a brushless DC motor.
Visor Down reports that the two electric motorcycles will be in production by 2016. No power figures have been released, but the PES1′s relatively low kerbweight suggests that Yamaha will use a small lithium-ion battery pack. It means performance should be excellent, although range will be compromised.
