RideFast Dec 2019

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The Efesto Ducati
hybrid Superbike.
French company Efesto has built a kit that can take your 205-odd horsepower
Ducati Panigale and turn it into a 300-horse hybrid widowmaker.
The performance hybrid is
becoming more and more
common in the automotive
world. And why not? Electric
motors can provide massive
torque and acceleration while
your gasoline engine is clearing
its throat and getting ready to
roar. At the expense of weight
and complexity, hybrids like the
BMW i8, Ferrari SF90 Stradale
and Aston Martin Valkyrie
gain explosive performance,
improved emissions profiles
and the ability to tootle around
short distances without
burning any gas at all. Some of
them can even nearly keep up
with a Tesla in a straight line.
The idea has understandably
not made it through to the
motorcycle world. Bikes are so
tightly packaged as is that their
mechanics can be identified
by their freshly and frequently
peeled knuckles. It’s no big
deal to lose some trunk space
in a car, but sportsbike riders
are already lucky if they can
squeeze their wallet under
the seat. Where would all that
bulky electric gear go?
Well, now we know. Parisian
company Efesto has leapt
into the unknown and built a
performance hybrid superbike,
the likes of which we’ve
never seen, beginning with
the achingly beautiful Ducati
Panigale as the donor platform.
The three big things you’ve
got to lump into your chassis
somewhere are a motor, an
inverter and a battery pack.
Efesto has hung the motor
underneath the rear of the
L-twin engine’s crankcase,
where it protrudes in a manner
that reminds us of the back
end of a bulldog. The output
shaft of the electric motor gets
a sprocket and small chain,
which connects to a double
sprocket on the countershaft
to co-pull the drive chain to the
rear wheel.
The inverter has been plonked
under the front cylinder, where
it can be fully hidden under
the fairings, although this has
necessitated the creation of
a thin, rectangular section
exhaust that... Well, let’s just
say that if Panigale designer
Gianandrea Fabbro ever saw it,
he’d go and take one of those
showers where you sit in the
corner hugging your knees and
rocking back and forth.
The battery pack, for its part,
lives in a specially crafted
subframe that makes the
razor-thin Ducati tailpiece look
like it’s had a bulky accident in
its tracksuit pants. We’ve all
been there.
Moving past the aesthetic
desecration of one of the
motorcycle world’s most
beautiful machines, we
can start to appraise the
genius behind this idea. One
doesn’t have to look at this
bike while riding it, after all,
that’s a problem for your
riding buddies, and the extra
performance it adds could well
make your own tailpiece look
like it’s carrying a battery pack.
The electric motor is a liquidcooled
axial flux unit making
some 108 horsepower and an
enormous peak torque of 150
Nm. Combine those figures
with the Panigale’s alreadyexcessive
205-horse, 1,285cc
L-twin, and you get yourself
a motorcycle that makes a
terrifying 300 horsepower, and
295 Nm.
Where the combustion motor
is massively oversquare,
sacrificing low-end shunt for a
flat-out top-end horsepower
rush, the electric is precisely
the opposite, pulling its
hardest from a standstill and
never having to pause as the
quickshifter bangs up through
the gears. The combination
must be profoundly insane.
We know what you’re thinking:
It’s a porker? Well, compared
to the original Panigale’s
ludicrous 163 kg dry weight,
it is a touch tubby at 194 kg.
But that’s still well within the
ballpark for a fast streetbike,
and the absolute whimpering
motherlode of toe-curling
power this system adds will
more than overcome the
additional poundage.
Efesto offers four riding modes
for the hybrid system; the
first is electric only, with a
round-town range of “up to
40 minutes in urban traffic.”
Then there’s gasoline only, in
which you still have access
to regenerative braking. Then
there’s a custom mode, which
lets you set whatever torque
and power you want from the
electric motor.
But the one you’re interested
in is boost mode, in which
you get the whole enchilada,
and every stupid thing you’ve
ever done flashes before your
eyes, up to and including the
moment you thought it’d be
a good idea to go full throttle
on a 300-horsepower hybrid
superbike. Sign us up.
There’s also a recharge mode;
Efesto will happily let you sip
power away from the petrol
engine to fill up the battery if
you don’t want to plug it in.
Colour us intrigued. There’s
very little wrong with the
experience of riding a latemodel
superbike as is; they’re
already wildly excessive and
ferociously overpowered for
street use. But more is always
welcome, and a hyper-hybrid
like this thing gives you
absolutely godlike torque
without ever having to plan
your rides around DC quick
chargers. You will, however,
want to avoid mirrors.
There’s no word on whether
Efesto plans to build and sell
these demonic machines, or
indeed how much they’d want
for one.
8 RIDEFAST MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019