Voxan to chase EV motorcycle world records

This exceptional speed record challenge, taking place over three days from Friday 30^th October, using the Châteauroux airport runway in central France, will see Biaggi teaming up with Monaco-based Voxan, as the bike brand’s owner, the Venturi Group, celebrates its 20^th anniversary of electric vehicle construction and adventures, including building sports cars and running its own ROKiT Venturi Formula E team.

These world speed record attempts were originally planned to take place in July on the planet’s largest salt flat, Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. However, due to COVID-19, these plans had to be postponed, and with the global pandemic crisis still on-going, immediate travel prospects to Bolivia became impossible, hence the move to Châteauroux airport, where the runway meets the criteria laid down by the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) for record attempts.

The electric Voxan Wattman bike models, ridden by Max Biaggi, will attack the Châteauroux runway with both bespoke semi-streamliner bodywork, plus the standard non-streamlined frame. Each 270kW (367PS) Voxan electric machine will attempt to set the stopwatch alight over a variety of distances, including the quarter mile, mile and one kilometre, each time being attempted from both a standing start, plus a flying start.

In six of these speed record categories, no official attempt has been made before by an all-electric motorcycle, so at least half-a-dozen new records are guaranteed for Voxan. In the remaining six categories, however, there are existing records that stand to be beaten. The target record speeds will vary considerably. In the electric semi-streamliner bike category, for example, the speed for the quarter mile will equate to 87km/h (53mph), whereas for the one mile class the figure is 329km/h (202mph). Watch this space to find out if Voxan can achieve setting its speed record goals…