Italian industrial designer Luca Bar's E-Carver is a wild looking racing concept.
Italian industrial designer Luca Bar submitted an interesting electric
motorcycle racing concept to the Motorcycle USA Inbox. Dubbed the E-Carver, the concept incorporates some unusual features. Most prominent are the electric motor, which mounts directly onto the rear wheel hub, and the forward leaning riding position.
“The in-wheel motor is one of the existing technologies that have been already developed in the car industry,” says Bar on his E-Carver concept. Hub-mounted motors benefit from greater efficiency, as power is not lost transferring energy via transmission gears or final drives – with most electric motorcycles still utilizing chain drives (
including the bikes participating in the TTXGP, not to mention the Brammo Enertia, whose styling looks similar in some ways to the E-Carver). The motor could also charge batteries on deceleration, improving efficiency even more.
Mounted directly to the rear wheel, the E-Carver's motor would deliver the immediate torque of its electric power without a transmission.
Instead of the Lithium-Ion batteries powering most electric motorcycle concepts (including all the electric racebikes in the inaugural TTXGP), the E-Carver would source “magnesium-based batteries” which Bar describes as more eco-friendly. The battery pack area would take up the traditional fuel tank and engine area, not to mention cradle the rider’s legs in the unconventional riding stance.
Speaking of which, the hyper-aggressive stance is “developed trying to give the highest feeling and emotion when carving.” Get it? E-Carver. Bar rationalizes that with the direct drive rear engine, all the required rider control input could be taken care of by the hands, allowing the feet to dangle back there unused... Notice the front brake appears to be ripped straight off a
Buell.
Bar describes the bike as “a concept motorcycle design that has been developed looking at existing and early future technologies. It could be developed and produced in a short future, available in 2015.”
For the foreseeable future, the E-Carver will remain just a concept sketch, but some reports put major electric motorcycle production just around the corner.
Who knows what will develop in the electric motorcycle market between today and 2015! For now the E-Carver racer only exists on paper (or electronic paper anyways).
What do you all think of the concept?
Check out the Luca Bar portfolio online. The E-Carver is just one of many concepts produced by Bar, who has created conceptual previews for Italian magazines. There are quite a few interesting concepts for the two-wheeled set to gaze at – including Bar’s rendering of a V-Four-powered Aprilia Tuono.
