Electric motorcycles still seem like a brave new world in some quarters, but the technology is maturing fast and the novelty is wearing off.
Shanghai-based Kiwi expat Matthew Waddick has been building street-legal electric customs for years now, and knows this well. ?Electric bikes are not new anymore,? he says. ?You can?t wow people just by being electric?you need to do better than that.?

So Matthew?s ramped up his operations, set up a production company called Switch, and just released this stunning ?eSCRAMBLER? prototype. And we reckon it looks as good as any petrol-powered bike out there.
That?s because the design comes from Michel Riis, a former Yamaha Japan designer?and Danish flat track champion. The brief was for a mid-size motorcycle with similar proportions to Shanghai Customs? eTRACKER concept, but with a more powerful motor, belt drive, and a more refined design.
The ?real world? performance had to tick several critical boxes: a top speed of around 150kph, 0?100 kph in 3.2 seconds, and minimum range of 150km per charge. And the bike had to be production ready, which meant catering for tooling up, CNC welding jigs and molded parts.
?There are a ton of electric scooters, light electric motorcycles (mainly in the off-road segment), and expensive electric sports bikes,? says Matthew. ?But there still isn?t much in this high-level ?custom styled? mid-size segment. And nothing I?ve seen in production so far.?

This is mostly due to design challenges: it?s very ...