Grace: An Electric Motorcycle Disguised as a Bike

Let’s get one thing straight: Grace is not an electric bicycle. Grace is, instead, the “world’s first legal street E-motorbike.” But whatever it is, its fast.

The Li-ion battery powered bike can hit 45km/h (28mph), powered by a 1.3KW motor (this is actually limited by law — some hacking will get you up to 65km/h, or 40mph), and it will run for an average of 25 miles before needing a recharge. To stop you again, the stiff aluminum bike is equipped with disk brakes front and rear.

But where are these extra parts? The batteries are actually inside the frame, and the engine inside the rear hub, hooked directly to the axle (you can pick one of two motors, one for speeding on the flats and one for powering you up hills). This stealthy appearance is essential to the Grace being called an E-motorbike. Why? The blurb:

E-motorbikes can go as fast as e-scooters or smaller e-motorcycles, but in contrast to these two categories they are much smaller and lighter and can be taken into trains, cars or even aircraft without a bigger effort.

That’s the trick: You can tear around town at the speed of a small scooter (or at least at the speed limit) and at the same time ride on the sidewalk, sneak through red lights and park anywhere you like. That will seem like a great idea to some, and a terrible idea to others (like me). The barrier to entry is thankfully set pretty high, though: the Grace, hand-built in Berlin, will cost you €5877, or a few dollars short of $8,800. That’s enough to buy a scooter and a pushbike, with money left over, although unlike a moped it will only cost $1.40 per 100 miles to run.

I certainly don’t want to buy one, but I’d love to take one out for a spin.

Product page [Grace via Giz]