2021 Yamaha YZ Electric Motocross Bike

Yamaha Motor Europe has produced an electric dirt bike with the help of battery producer SPIKE, engineering company Dohms Projects, and the Royal Dutch Motorcyclists Association (KNMV) to produce an electric motor and battery system to be retrofit into an existing YZ250F chassis.

This technology is being pushed by both the market and by ever stricter limits by the E.U. on noise and emissions. This is good news for the U.S., as well, as electric dirt bikes make very little noise, so more trails may be open to them, and motocross tracks could theoretically be placed anywhere, instead of remote areas where noise won’t be a factor.

This new Yamaha bike features a hot-swappable battery to allow many hours of riding. SPIKE developed the battery system and Dohms is responsible for the drive and weight distribution.

THE PARTNERS SPEAK

“We are happy to support this project as we feel it is important to boost developments in electric technology,” said Yamaha Europe Product Manager Leon Oosterhof. “We are very much looking forward to test and evaluate the prototype to understand how the technology from Dohms and SPIKE performs in our YZF chassis.”

“I am convinced that the electric machine we are building will soon be faster than the current generation of dirt bikes,” said Bas Verkaik of SPIKE. “The big advantage of an electric motor is that the torque is much higher. That gives more pulling power. You can drive a faster lap with it.”

“I am a big fan of motocross, the smell of petrol and the sound of crackling engines,” said Patrice Assendelft, director of the KNMV. “By supporting this project, we really don’t give up on traditional combustion engines. But we have to look to the future. Now we can still make noise. But if circuits face limitations, we need to be prepared for the future. An electric MX machine, which emits no harmful substances and makes no noise, makes practicing motocross easier.”

The bike is planned to be ready by the end of 2020.