Energica is officially back.
The Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer, which ceased operations in 2024 after entering judicial liquidation, has announced a major revival with new international ownership. And although the Energica name returns, this time the company behind it will look quite different.
Perhaps the biggest change is where the motorcycles will actually be built.
Energica says motorcycle production will move to Asia, while design, engineering, research and development, as well as responsibility for technical and quality standards, will remain in Italy. The new manufacturing setup is expected to significantly reduce production costs, allowing Energica to reduce motorcycle prices by approximately 20% compared to its previous models.
This could be a big problem for a company whose motorcycles were widely praised for their performance and technology, but which were also firmly positioned in the premium segment of the market.
The revival comes after Energica was acquired by Energica Pte. Ltd. Ltd., a Singapore-based company backed by international private investors. Importantly, much technological knowledge is not disappearing overseas with manufacturing. Energica says its senior engineering and design leadership remains in Italy, including veteran chief technology officer Giampiero Testoni and designer Paolo Imeni.
The first motorcycle to return will be the Energica Experia, the company’s adventure-oriented electric sport-tourer. After that, Energica plans to progressively restart production of Ego, Eva Ribelle and EsseEsse9, and eventually bring its entire previous line back to the market.
At least initially, those motorcycles will use their existing platforms, which should help Energica get motorcycles off the production line faster without having to develop and homologate entirely new machines. But upgrades are already planned, including a new battery and improvements to range, efficiency, performance and reliability.
Energica is also specifically targeting Europe, the United States and Australia as it rebuilds its dealer and service networks. The current owners have not been forgotten either. The company says service has now resumed and shipments of spare parts have restarted to dealers in several countries.
For anyone who has followed the electric motorcycle industry over the past decade, Energica’s demise was particularly painful. This wasn’t a startup with a couple of representations and a dream. Energica built some of the highest-performance electric motorcycles on the road and spent four seasons supplying motorcycles for the FIM MotoE World Cup, experience that helped develop its DC and high-voltage fast charging technology.
Now the company is getting something relatively rare in the motorcycle industry: a second chance.
And if moving production to Asia can actually shave around 20% off Energica’s prices while retaining the Italian engineering that made the bikes special in the first place, Energica 2.0 could have a considerably better chance of turning big electric motorcycles into a sustainable business.
Electrek’s opinion
It seems that moving towards Asian manufacturing is almost inevitable here. It was expensive European manufacturing of low-volume motorcycles that weighed so heavily on Energica’s balance sheets in the years before its financial problems, so moving production to countries with experience and cost benefits for motorcycle manufacturing simply makes sense.
Energica is not alone in discovering the economic advantages of moving electric motorcycle production to Asia. Zero Motorcycles spent years manufacturing its motorcycles in California before beginning a major shift toward production in the Philippines in 2023, including complete motorcycles and major subassemblies. The company is now working with several factories, including major manufacturers like Zongshen in China, to reduce production costs for its electric motorcycles while maintaining the “designed in California” marketing angle.
It’s too early to say how the new strategy for Energica will play out, but the fact that the company is now following a more well-trodden path is a positive sign for those who have spent the last two years hoping for a resurgence.
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