Active Planet: Electric motorcycles taking off while the world looks the other way

A small motorcycle company called Zero Motorcycles surprised both itself and many others by selling out its entire production run of the X, an electric motocross bike.

Now the company has produced a street-legal version, the S. It's an ideal commuter bike: silent and with no emissions other than those created to make the electricity needed to charge it up. And there's not a lot of that.

With a maximum range of around 90km and a top speed of around 90kph it ticks the first two boxes for commuting. Then it goes on to tick even more: that recharge costs around USD0.60 in its home market. And its 31 horsepower is enough given that the bike weighs the same as 102 bags of sugar – 102kg.

There are two things that militate against it: developed from the X, its styling is supermoto – that limits its market to young men. And its price: at just shy of USD10k, few young men will be able to afford it. Cheap commuter bikes cost far less.

Of course, in cities where electric vehicles are exempt road pricing and even parking charges, the offset will build up quickly.

But what Zero really needs to do is put the technology into an affordable scooter with somewhere to put the kids and the shopping. And to get the price down. Then its market will be far away from the USA – it will be in the motorcycle dependent countries of Asia.

The USA is starting to take electric cycles very seriously: Zero hosted a 24 hour off-road marathon for electricity powered vehicles last Saturday.

But it's not just the US: the FIM, motorcycling's international governing body, will run an Isle of Man TT event for zero-emmission bikes, called TTXGP, in June this year. The aim, ultimately, is to have electric and petrol bikes racing against each other in open – and competitive – competition.

Austrian bike maker KTM – often at the forefront of technology – has announced that its electric Enduro bike, in testing since 2008 – will enter full production in 2010. But as an out and out racer, it is perhaps not as economical as some will hope: a one hour charge gives one hour of use. But KTM expect to announce that it will sell for a similar price to its petrol-powered cousins.

But back in the USA, it's Mission Motorcycles that will have riders salivating: they have announced a high-torque, high power sports bike with a usable range. 225KM range and 225kph top speed – with low-end acceleration to beat many petrol powered rivals.

Xtreme Green has launched a 100kph bike costing USD8,000. And it has announced that it will soon put into production a scooter. With a range of around 150KM, it will be both a useful commuter and even usable as a courier transport. After all, the more miles it does, the quicker the additional cost is recouped.

Prices are set to come down: in December 2008, Honda announced plans to launch an electric bike: but it's nowhere near the sports or commuter sector: it's a large cruiser. It will come to market in 2010 – and target big-bike owners – the sector where the product is perhaps less price-sensitive than the smaller bikes.

Lithium batteries are the most popular power storage.

But whilst zero emissions is the holy grail, Greenfly is moving to the half-way house of LPG. Looking like a slightly lightweight Dakar Rally machine, it's currently a prototype but the omens look good as it does not require such a leap of faith as going electric.