It’s another storybook sunny day in Malibu, and I’m doing one of the things I love most in life. With the Pacific behind me and the canyons ahead, I’m threading a powerful sportbike through tight corners at speed, flicking from apex to apex. But inside my helmet is a worry I can’t shake, and it’s got nothing to do with going down. My concern is annoyingly logistical: Do I have enough battery power to get home?

Modern Love

Electric motorcycle technology has leapfrogged itself over the past decade, evolving from glorified mountain bikes with janky suspensions and laughable range to fully viable alternatives to gas-powered bikes. While California’s Zero Motorcycles leads the charge with a full lineup of dirtbikes, supermotos, and every sub-genre in between, an ambitious outfit in Modena, Italy has focused its efforts on building a high-end electrified sport bike made for go-fast bon vivants.

Energica Motor Company is run by CEO Livia Cevolini, a colorfully stylish Italian whose grandfather worked with Enzo Ferrari. While Energica officially launched its first electric bike, the Ego, in 2014, its parent company, the CRP Group, has supplied F1 teams and supercar manufacturers with rapid prototyping and advanced materials engineering services since 1970.

In typical tech startup fashion, Energica has faced delays and hiccups along the way. But company reps now says it’s in full production, and though they won’t disclose how many bikes they’ve delivered, they say they’re “very satisfied” with the results thus far.

My range anxiety struck as I rode Energica’s second bike, the Eva, the stripped-down version of the Ego, whose mechanical bits are covered in bodywork. Price of entry: $34,544, approximately double the cost of an off-the-shelf superbike from the usual YamaSuzuHonda suspects.

The Goods

The Energica Eva is powered by an oil-cooled permanent magnet 70 kW motor fed by an 11.7 kWh battery, with direct drive to the rear wheel. The powerplant produces 95 horsepower and 125 lb-ft of torque (19 lb-ft less than the sportier Ego), and is managed by a control unit that monitors several variables including throttle position and lean angle. A full charge requires 3.5 hours, though a built-in DC fast charger can fill an empty battery to 85 percent in 30 minutes.

Up front is a fully adjustable fork by Marzocchi, the same you’d find on a high-spec sportbike. You can order a top-shelf rear Öhlins shock as a $1,037 option. Beefy brakes by Brembo perform stopping duties, and everything is held together by a tubular steel trellis frame, similar to the design found on Italian exotica from Ducati and MV Agusta.

Unlike the Ego’s aggressive ergonomics, the Eva ditches clip-ons for a handlebar that enables a more upright sitting posture. Throttle mapping has been revised, and suspension geometry changes include a lower front end. Seat height has dropped a tad (to 31.3 inches), making the Eva more accessible to vertically challenged folk, and the view from the saddle includes a multifunction TFT display with the requisite battery state/riding mode info.

Energica says the Eva can ride up to 90 miles at highway speeds, deliver 100 miles of range in the city, and go a full 124 miles in eco mode (if you don’t mind a mushy throttle). Zero to 60 mph is estimated in the three second range, and top speed is a claimed 124 mph—not quite the blistering stats produced by top tier petrol-powered superbikes, but fully respectable for something that spews zero emissions.

Swift, (Mostly) Silent

My ride started in downtown Santa Monica, a traffic-clogged urban enclave. Though the Eva is a tad heavy to lift off its side stand, it’s easy to creep along at slow speeds while lane-splitting between Priuses. The connection between throttle twist and forward movement on the Eva is intuitive, making power modulation at around 20 mph a cakewalk. Unlike gasoline powered steeds with pistons flying inside cylinders, there’s no reciprocating mass inside the Eva, which makes its chassis almost entirely vibration-free as it glides down the road. As with any battery-powered steed, there’s a certain satisfaction to cruising around in near-complete silence surrounded by the city’s raucous thrum. Incidentally, my electric ride drew a generous share of approving glances from passersby—not surprising, since Santa Monica is Southern California’s epicenter of eco chic.

At 617 pounds, the Eva’s no lightweight, so it takes a second or two to feel its full power. But once you reach the urban escape velocity of around 25 miles per hour and keep the throttle twisted, the Eva pulls ahead with gusto, producing a long, sweet sweep of power and acceleration that challenges the best of the internal combustion bikes. There are also no gears to row, which can leave experienced riders grabbing for a nonexistent clutch lever. But not having to focus on shifting gears also distills the riding experience: though you lose something something satisfyingly mechanical (the clink of the foot shifter, the springy feel of the clutch lever), there’s also a simplicity that enables a more fluid connection between rider and machine. Stripping away the act of gear selection enables the rider to focus on the essentials: acceleration, deceleration, and turning.

What the Eva lacks in range, it makes up for with ardent, if imperfect, performance.

Like other modern rides, the Eva offers urban, eco, and rain modes, all of which deliver smooth but relatively drab power delivery. I stuck to sport mode—it’s more fun, and that’s how I ride in real life—and especially enjoyed the onslaught of torque between 30 and 60 mph. The Brembo brakes don’t deliver much bite, but setting the motor regeneration to its most aggressive setting eliminates the need to tap the brakes under most riding conditions, making it easy to control the bike solely through the throttle grip.

Though it feels light under acceleration, the Eva handles like the heavy bike it is. It takes a bit of effort to set up for a corner, and a committed course once you’ve determined your line. Release the throttle (carefully, so the regen doesn’t upset the bike’s balance), and the bike leans nicely as it enters the bend. Though it coped with mild bumps reasonably well, my tester’s suspension seemed tuned for a heavier rider, which made the bigger ripples and undulations on Malibu’s Piuma Road somewhat jarring. You can make up for the loss in velocity with an aggressive twist of the throttle when exiting a corner, but the Eva’s handling isn’t nimble or supple enough to match that of a focused upright internal combustion weapon like the Aprilia Tuono or KTM Super Duke R.

Returning to Base

For my ride, Energica proposed a 35-mile round trip through the city, up the Pacific Coast Highway, and into the canyons of Malibu. But once I’d escaped the city and found my happy place in the hills, I couldn’t resist a few extra canyon corners. As I basked in the seemingly endless torque and lack of engine noise that let me actually hear birds chirping, the range anxiety finally set in.

Still, I pressed on because, well, that’s what you do when you’re in the zone. There may have even been a roadside burnout or two along the way. But once the prospect of sitting highwayside with a 600-pound brick outweighed the fun of carving, I turned around. Credit to the bike’s park-assistant feature, which reverses the bike at about two mph, for making it easy to back the heavy bike uphill.

Loading View on Instagram

Accumulating regeneration on the downhill and riding conservatively on the highway, I bought back some range and returned to base camp with more than a few miles of extra charge. But my takeaway remains: with a prescribed commute and the discipline not to veer off course, two-wheeled EVs make a lot of sense. They deliver effortless, quiet running power without tapping into the world’s petroleum supply, a task the Eva handles with more élan than the next bike. As an electric car owner, I understand trading ultimate range for efficiency.

Until you factor in wanderlust. Astride the Energica Eva, I couldn’t help but dip deeper into the canyons than I should have. Passionate Italian machine, dreamy roads, go figure. By ride’s end, I probably would have eked out between 50 and 60 miles with my aggressive riding. But what the Eva lacks in range, it makes up for with ardent, if imperfect, performance. Ultimately, this particular blend of technology and soul paints an intriguing picture for the future of motorcycling, one that involves silence, speed, and perhaps a sense of adventure tinged with some careful route planning.