Lightning Motorcycles' LS-218 electric superbike is now available to customers who want to ride a motorcycle that is fast and energy-efficient at the same time.
The $38,000 bike is capable of reaching speeds up to 218 miles per hour (mph), and a full charge will provide the owner with a range of 90 to 100 miles, according to CNET. This speed puts it ahead of most sports bikes that run on gasoline, which usually can reach 215 mph at most. It does not get hot in traffic, and there are no vibrations either.
Troy Helming became Lightning Motorcycles' first customer for the LS-218 on Tuesday.
"When I test drove this thing I didn't know what to do with the torque. It was unbelievable," Helming said. "I felt like I was going to fly off the back."
The LS-218's release follows a year after it won the Pikes Peak car and motorcycle race, becoming the first electric motorcycle to do so, CNET reported. The 12.5 mile race comes with 156 turns around the 14,000-foot peak in Colorado. The electric bike finished the race in 10 minutes flat, speeding up to 160 mph on the straight-aways.
While the LS-218 isn't the first electric motorcycle, it has proven to be the fastest. It is also not the first high-performance electric vehicle, as that title goes to the Lotus Elise sports car outfitted with electric motors from Tesla.
Helming said he wasn't able to go faster than 65 mph on his older electric bike, CNET reported. Richard Hatfield, CEO of Lightning Motorcycles, said the bike is also designed to be comfortable, and that riding it "feels like the future."
The LS-218 has gained the approval of several analysts, including Jennifer Kent from Parks Associates, who believes the bike will show people how well electric motorcycles can do on the road.
"It upends the prevailing wisdom that going electric sacrifices performance," Kent said. "Lightning Motorcycles has proved that electric motorcycles can perform - or even outperform - traditional gas bikes."
