The technology project NEXT was initiated and realized by the two Swiss engineering companies ESORO and ASMO and the label WITCHBROOM racing. The objective is the demonstration of the capabilities of electric drive trains for future motorcycles.
The companies, with 20 years of experience in electrification, decided to use a Kawasaki KX 450 F, which represents the state-of-the-art motorcycle technology, as basis for this first project.
NEXT demonstrates quite impressively the capabilities of an all-electric motorcycle, if an integral development approach is used. The chosen solution was a combination of special LiPo high power batteries, an extremely powerful electric engine and a multi-gear transmission. The results are excellent specifications which allowed ASMO and WITCHBROOM racing to be more than competitive from the beginning. Also, drivers and test reports gave a very positive feedback. The combination of approved technology and the quiet power was appreciated very much, since this offers – apart from pure driving pleasure – completely new possibilities concerning race and training tracks.
Nevertheless, even if the success was unexpectedly high, the NEXT will not be commercially available in the near future. NEXT is used by the partners as technology platform to test under racing conditions and to demonstrate for future customer projects in the motorcycle industry.
