E-Moto snags 168-mph world record, and that wasn't even its top speed

The RW-5 Voxan recently sped past 180 mph (290 km/h) in a flying mile at the Bonneville Salt Flats, shattering four separate speed records for an electric bike. It was developed via a collaboration between Ohio State University and the Venturi Group.

Venturi is the name behind MVS Venturi, the Atlantique sports car, LM race cars, and even the FLEX rover designed for SpaceX's mission to the Moon. The company owns French bikemaker Voxan, and it is that firm's continuing efforts with Ohio State University that have birthed multiple speed record vehicles for the better part of 15 years.

The four world records set by the RW-5 Voxan at the end of August are in the sub-150-kg (331-lb) class of electric motorcycles, both with and without the bike's fairing. That said, those records are currently pending approval from the IFIM (Fédération Internationale Motocycliste).

French rider Louis-Marie Blondel, the one on the hot seat for these records, managed to hit 168.712 mph (271.515 km/h) for a 1-km flying start and 168.593 mph (271.323 km/h) for a 1-mile flying start on a sans-fairing version of the RW-5. For the streamlined version, the bike reached 180.065 mph (289.787 km/h) for a flying start of one kilometer and 180.035 mph (289.738 km/h) for a flying start of one mile.

Talking about this feat, Gildo Pastor, President of the Venturi Group remarked, "Four new world speed records, what a fabulous gift to mark the 15th anniversary of our partnership! Ohio State University and ourselves already held five records, and now we have nine."

The RW-5 Voxan is an electric moto that's powered by a lithium-ion battery and an 80-kW liquid-cooled permanent magnet axial flux motor. It's capable of producing 132.7 lb-ft (180 Nm) of torque and 107 horsepower.

These figures aren’t really earth-shattering by any means, but couple them with the bike's overall weight of 331 lb (150 kg) and it's easy to see how the RW-5 can touch 180-mph speeds. That’s almost as light as a bare-bones enduro bike!

The motorcycle has a wheelbase of 66.1 in (1.68 m) and an overall length of 101.1 in (2.57 m) with its stock fairing. It was put together by Ohio State University's Buckeye Current team of engineering students, with the Venturi Group's design office providing input on the bike’s design, suspension, battery, gearbox, setup and stability optimization.

Ohio State’s partnership with the French manufacturer originally made headlines back in 2021 when six-time world champ Max Biaggi established a number of speed records for electric motorcycles on Voxan’s then-Wattman bike. The Italian achieved a top speed of over 283 mph (455 km/h) over a two-way average, setting a number of records across one-kilometer, one-mile, and quarter-mile distances.

Voxan has previously broken a number of speed records, getting the title of the fastest hydrogen vehicle in the world in 2010. With a maximum speed of 303.025 mph (487.671 km/h), the Venturi VBB-2 set records in the electric class, which its successors, the VBB 2.5 and VBB-3, likewise set later on.

This is one more example of how the EV space is building up. While the RW-5 was purpose-built to shatter this sort of record, it also acts as a testing ground for technologies that may one day find their way into motorcycle production. Until that day comes, off we head to our office commutes on internal combustion bikes.

Source: Venturi