Energica is ‘lined up’ for electric motorcycle sales after coronavirus pandemic

Italy’s premier electric motorcycle manufacturer Energica is preparing to return to strong sales figures after being rocked hard by the current coronavirus pandemic.

Now the company’s CEO Livia Cevolini is detailing how she plans to do it.

Italy was, of course, one of the earliest European hot spots for the coronavirus pandemic.

The country currently has over 143,000 confirmed cases and has suffered more than 18,000 deaths.

The pandemic led to an early nationwide shutdown, part of a widespread effort to slow the spread of the virus in the country.

Like all nonessential businesses, Energica closed operations as well, cutting short its meteoric rise in sales and increased production at the start of 2020.

Before the end of February 2020, Energica announced that it had surpassed all of its 2019 sales in less than two months.

After reeling from the coronavirus pandemic for the last month, Energica is laying out its plan to get back to production and continue along the sales trajectory it set at the beginning of the year.

As Energica CEO Livia Cevolini explained in a statement provided to Electrek:

We have gone and are still going through an unimaginable global challenge. In these hard times it is also necessary not to stop our beating heart, the Made in Italy manufacturing that has made us unique in the world. I agree with what Confindustria said, it is important to define a roadmap for a safe reopening. For this reason, Energica has already started organizing the production recovery, while confirming and increasing the protection measures already applied before the closure.

Our production could resume with a maximum of 30 people on an area of 3000 square meters, organized in two or more shifts to further increase the distance between people. As before the lockdown, each employee will be equipped with surgical masks and gloves. Disinfection will be applied to incoming and outgoing goods.

In addition to protecting the physical safety of its employees, Energica has apparently worked to address their financial safety as well. While many Americans worry about coronavirus-related hospital bills that can reach tens of thousands of dollars, Energica has activated “COVID19 insurance” for all of its staff.

Coverage began on March 16 and is set to last throughout 2020.

As Livia continued:

The safeguard of health and safety of our workers comes first. We are therefore available to consider any further request, including serological tests.

The Italian government has not yet set a date when businesses can resume operations.

However, Energica is preparing for that eventuality so that it can return to semi-standard operations as soon as possible. With the vast majority of Energica’s supply chain sourced from within Italy, much of its operations are expected to begin nearly simultaneously once lockdowns begin to be lifted.

According to the authorities timing, we are ready and lined up on the grid. Our aim is to be able to follow up on our customers’ requests and our growth path as soon as possible. Having many markets open and in compliance with the local regulations, we will be able to deliver many of the bikes ordered and therefore to restart, including smart working for the office staff.

Last but not least, the reopening of supplier companies will be key: the supply chain is a crucial element for the resuming of the entire production chain, made up of hundreds of supplier companies. In our case, more than 80% of the supply chain is Italian.

Along with Lightning and Harley-Davidson, Energica is one of the few electric motorcycle manufacturers to offer DC Fast Charging on its motorcycles. Last year, Energica unveiled its new electric motorcycle lineup with one of the largest e-moto battery capacities in the world. The batteries featured a more than 60% increase in capacity and range. The new 21.5 kWh battery packs are expected to provide city ranges of around 400 km (249 mi), with highway ranges at just under half of those figures.

Energica had already demonstrated an increasing presence in the US by the beginning of this year. If the company can get its production back on track, it could present a growing challenge to US-made electric motorcycles such as the Harley-Davidson LiveWire and Zero’s extensive lineup.