Electric Bike Record

The world speed record for an electric motorcycle is 408 kilometres-per-hour.

This is important as a milestone in electrification, but also because it was achieved with a double-sided grand prix component on the first weekend in November.

The first was Max Biaggi, a former MotoGP star who won four 250cc championships with Aprilia and Honda before becoming a two-time winner of the Superbike world championship with Aprilia.

The second was an EQ Power drivetrain from the same people responsible for the hybrid package in the latest Mercedes-AMG W11 being raced to another grand prix world title by Lewis Hamilton.

The 270 kiloWatt electric motor was developed at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains in Brixworth, in the UK, and then installed in a custom-built Voxan Wattman streamliner.

The combination claimed a total of 11 world speed records at an airfield at Chateauroux in France over three days of running.

Just to keep things straight, and despite the claims of hyper-car makers including Rimac, the world record for the fastest battery-electric car is held by the Buckeye Bullet, an American-made streamliner that hit 549.43 kilometres-and-hour in 2016.