words Johanna Agerman
Mission One is Yves Béhar’s latest project – an electric motorbike that tries to hide its green credentials in favour of “boy’s toy” styling.
“Because you create an electrical motorbike doesn’t mean that you have to suddenly downgrade the experience to something sluggish and boring,” says Béhar of the project. “The motorcycle is being sold on performance first. The fact that it’s electrical is an added benefit.”
The outcome is a futuristic bike that looks like something out of Robocop. The exterior is styled in matte black plastic with a golden-orange and silver-white seat that ducktails at the rear, where the tail-light is seamlessly integrated into the form.
The bike can travel at 150mph, considerably faster than other electric bikes, and it has an estimated range of 150 miles. The downside is that it takes two hours to recharge, but “few people on a motorcycle want to ride more than 150 miles in a row anyway,” explains Béhar.
The Mission One is manufactured by the San Francisco-based Mission Motors, founded in 2007, and will retail at about £47,000 when it is released next spring.
