US engineers build world's fastest electric motorbike

With a top speed of 241.901mph and a two-way average of 240.726mph, Eva Håkansson drove KillaJoule to beat the previous electric motorcycle speed record by 25mph.

In addition to being a new electric motorcycle record, the speed is also an overall new record for any kind of sidecar motorcycles, including internal combustion-powered sidecar motorcycles.

‘This is a truly historic event,’ said Håkansson, a PhD student in mechanical engineering at the NSF Center for High Voltage/Temperature Materials and Structures at University of Denver. ‘It is the first time in over a century that an electric vehicle beats internal combustion for a vehicle type. The last time this happened was in 1899 when the world’s fastest car was the electric car ‘La Jamais Contente’ driven by Camille Jenatzy at 65mph. Since then, internal combustion has dominated everything.’

The record runs at the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials on August 28 2014 give Eva and KillaJoule the titles:

• Fastest electric motorcycle in the world
• Fastest sidecar motorcycle in the world (including internal combustion)
• Fastest speed of the event
• Fastest woman on a motorcycle in the world

KillaJoule took five years to build, with around 80 per cent carried out in Håkansson’s garage.  She and her husband Bill Dube, who is also a mechanical engineer, said in a statement that they are ‘backyard racers with high-level engineering skills’.