FRANKFURT/MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Heavy motorcycles with electric drives are selling slowly on the German market. Customers prefer smaller battery-powered two-wheelers. In the smallest class, which corresponds to mopeds with a displacement of up to 50 cubic centimeters, almost 30 percent of electric bikes are already being sold, as reported by the German Motorcycle Industry Association (IVM). The same applies to class A1 with an engine capacity of up to 125 cubic centimetres, where more than 10 percent of newly registered two-wheelers will have an electric drive in 2023.

The e-version is significantly less popular for heavy motorcycles. "96-97 percent of motorcycles have a combustion engine," says Matthias Meier, Managing Director of the Harley-Davidson Factory in Frankfurt. "The electric segment plays a relatively small role." According to evaluations by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), there were 222,046 new motorcycle registrations last year - of which only 16,945 were electric. In 2022, there were 33,687 of 223,889 newly registered motorcycles.

The range of e-motorcycles on offer is also manageable. BMW has postponed the launch of its e-model until 2026 at the earliest. The model was originally announced for 2025. There is "no really relevant customer demand for electric motorcycles anywhere in the world", says BMW spokesperson Tim Diehl-Thiele. As long as there is no demand, BMW wants to continue to focus on electric models for urban areas and for manageable distances./evy/DP/zb