After the Jerez issue in 2019 and Covid in 2020, a new challenge has set itself on the MotoE path. The end of Enel's sponsorship and the electrical systems of the world championship circuits have something to do with it. Here are the details.
After a longer-than-usual wait, Dorna Sport has released the calendar for the 2025 MotoE World Championship. While the MotoGP calendar had already been known for a couple of months, the WSBK calendar for several weeks, and so on for Junior GP, World Endurance, and MXGP, the calendar for the electric MotoGP class was the last to be unveiled.
Even stranger it was to see that there will be fewer races in 2025 than in the previous two years. If, in fact, in 2023 and 2024, there had been 16 races on eight circuits, next year, there will be two fewer, and the number of circuits hosting MotoE will drop to seven. An approach apparently not in line with MotoE's past and the ever-increasing number of MotoGP rounds.
The sequence of races during the year also appears anomalous, with the first round at Le Mans followed by a stop of almost two months before Assen. From there on, another month and a half will pass before eight races in a single month between Austria, Hungary, Catalonia and San Marino. The conclusion of the season will be at Portimao after one more month off.
They are good venues, but the sequence seemed dictated by something different than before, so what?
It's June, at Mugello, for the Italian GP. In the MotoE paddock we meet, as usual, the Enel technicians who care about the charging infrastructure for all the Ducati V21Ls of the championship. Here, we learn that Enel will no longer be the championship's Title Sponsor. It seems a natural thing to do after six years in which the Italian electricity company has joined the MotoE series. It is understandable. The championship sponsorship is gone, but Enel continues to support the electric MotoGP world championship by providing personnel and charging systems.
After a few weeks, however, the situation changes radically. Enel not only leaves the role of main sponsor, but decides to disengage from MotoE completely. The Italian electricity company decides to take a new path and invest in football sponsorship. It began with the announcement of the partnership with Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli on 12 July, followed in the following two months by those with AS Roma, Atalanta BC, Cagliari Calcio, FC Internazionale Milano, Juventus FC, SS Lazio and Torino FC. Enel thus becomes the Official Energy Partner of eight important clubs in the Italian football major league.
It would be all well and good if not for the fact that without Enel, MotoE lacks the bike charging systems and energy management systems that Enel has provided over the years to compensate for the shortcomings of the electricity grids of many circuits where MotoE has raced.
The problem is not insignificant; in fact, it is essential. In 2019, on the eve of the first edition of the championship, it was realised that some circuits were not equipped with an electrical network capable of withstanding the peaks of electricity required by the bikes during recharging. Cables, transformers, electrical substations, and everything else were designed for a modest electrical load, with nothing to do with the current required to recharge eighteen 18 kWh batteries at the same time (20 kWh for the Ducati model). Hence, the idea of the Enel engineers was to design special chargers with an integrated battery. The basic idea was to absorb little energy from the electricity grid, but continuously, to charge the charger batteries. When charging the motorbike, the energy was therefore not taken from the main electrical line but from the battery of the chargers themselves. This allowed MotoE to race on circuits like Jerez or the Sachsenring with an electrical system not sized for the category.
Now let's go back to the 18 championship: all of a sudden these special chargers are missing and, in many of the circuits, it is no longer possible to cover the XNUMX kW of peak power needed to recharge the bikes. Not only that but this power must be supplied through a dedicated power line, separate from the other circuit users. Not all circuits have it, and for this reason, it is no longer possible to race at Jerez, Sachsenring or Mugello unless these circuits modify their power grid.
Now let's go back to the 2025 championship: all of a sudden these special chargers are missing and, in many of the circuits, it is no longer possible to cover the 550 kW of peak power needed to recharge the bikes. Not only that, but this power must be supplied through a dedicated power line, separate from the other circuit users. Not all circuits have it, and for this reason, it is no longer possible to race at Jerez, Sachsenring or Mugello unless these circuits modify their power grid.
In pole position on the opposite front is the Misano circuit, which even before this criticality arose, had already planned a series of works that went well beyond the needs of the MotoGP electric series. However, other circuits need to be found. The Barcelona track, a few years ago, had done a series of works to host events and races related to electric mobility, so it is practically ready, net of minimal interventions. Balaton Park, in Hungary, has said it is almost ready, again with a few modifications. Little by little, other circuits also confirm that they can equip themselves with what is needed for the MotoE, so Le Mans, Assen, Portimao, and the Red Bull Ring are added to the calendar. The latter is the one that has undergone the most changes but confirms that it will be ready in the required time.
While the list of tracks to race on is being drawn up, possible suppliers of the new charging systems are being evaluated. The final decision has not yet been made, but in these days, in Misano, Dorna and Ducati are running simulations to decide which systems will be suitable for the 2025 World Championship.
Enel's farewell has exposed the championship in 2025 to a new risk, but the solutions that are emerging represent a step forward for MotoE. If the solutions found prove reliable, it will no longer be necessary to transport from track to track the cumbersome and heavy systems that Enel had created to recharge the bikes on poorly equipped tracks. The result will be a set of circuits with a more modern electrical infrastructure capable of directly supplying power to the motorbikes through simple battery chargers that can be purchased on the market. Not only MotoE, but also other competitions, such as Formula E, or events related to electric mobility, which these circuits will be able to host more easily.
Although from the outside it only appeared that the calendar came out a little late, what actually happened was that MotoE faced another major challenge, as it did in 2019, after the Jerez fire, or in 2020, because of Covid, from which it survived, proving to be extremely resilient.
At this point, we can go back to dedicating ourselves to the technical evolution of the bike, to the sporting aspect and to following the line-up of the teams that will take part in the seventh season of the MotoE.
MotoE World Championship 2025
The calendar of MotoE 2025: 14 races and the novelty of Balaton Park
MotoE World Championship
The standings of the 2024 championship
Photo: MotoGP e Ducati
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