Can Lightning’s electric motorcycle really charge as fast as a gas tank fill-up?
Touring, a type of riding that involves long distance trips, has long been the achilles heel of electric motorcycles. While e-motos have developed to the point where they can beat combustion engine motorcycles in nearly every other metric, quick recharging required for long distance riding has yet to reach parity with a gas station fill-up. At least, that was until Lightning Motorcycle debuted what it says is the fastest charging electric motorcycle yet.
Lightning Motorcycles, the Southern California-based boutique e-motorcycle manufacturer, claims that its new fast-charging electric motorcycle can recharge nearly as fast as a combustion engine motorcycle can refuel its tank.
Previously, the quickest DC fast-charging electric motorcycles like the models from Energica or Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire One boasted a recharge time of around 30 minutes for a nearly topped-up battery.
But Lightning claims it can blow those figures out of the water by using new fast-charging battery technology from Enevate. The company’s next-generation silicon-anode batteries claim a much faster recharge time, which Lightning says allows its electric motorcycles to get a nearly full battery recharge in as little as 10 minutes.
That’s still a bit longer than a gasoline fill-up, but since most touring riders generally use a fuel-stop as a chance to stretch their legs after a few hours on a cramped bike, a 10-minute refueling window is fairly reasonable in the touring world.
Lightning has been testing a prototype of the system by using its Lightning Strike motorcycle outfitted with a 24 kWh battery from Enevate.
Lightning Motorcycles CEO Richard Hatfield told New Atlas that the new battery doesn’t just charge faster, it also offers better range:
We’re getting 150 to 170 miles (241 to 274 km) of range at 70 miles an hour (113 km/h) along highway 5. And we’re charging from 0-80% in about 10 minutes, or at nearly a 5C rate, on a level 3 CCS charger. That’s probably the most common level 3 charger at this point, other than Tesla, and I know even Tesla is offering CCS options on some of its chargers.
Hatfield went on to describe the engineering challenges that the higher charging rate required:
So we’ve got 120 kW of electricity going in, for about 10 minutes straight. It’s almost impossible to duplicate that on the discharge side; it’s 300 amps and 400 volts for 10 minutes continuously, there’s just no place you could really do that on the throttle. So it made us re-think all the interconnects, the cabling and the charge connectors, even the contactors. And inside the fairings, we have to move air to cool the components to sustain that level of charging.
To demonstrate the fast-charging rate, Lightning released a video (below) where it pitted two other electric motorcycles against the prototype Lightning Strike with Enevate’s fast charging technology. While the two other bikes aren’t named, they are quite obviously a LiveWire One from Harley-Davidson and an SR/S from Zero Motorcycles.
The LiveWire One offers DC Fast Charging while the Zero SR/S is limited to slower Level 2 charging speeds.
The three bikes are shown charging at the same time, and Lightning set the finish line for the competition at 12 kWh of energy dumped into the batteries. The video shows that the Zero charges at 6 kW on AC power while the LiveWire shows a punchier 20 kW of DC charging power on the dash. The Lightning seems to be on a whole other level though as it is shown peaking at around 104 kW.
The Lightning obviously crosses the 12 kWh mark first, which occurs at around 11 minutes. The LiveWire manages to recharge 3.3 kWh in that time and the Zero only gets in 1.1 kWh.
While Lightning obviously took home the gold in the charging matchup, the charging rate still doesn’t seem to live up to Hatfield’s claim of charging from “0-80% in about 10 minutes.” Rather, the video shows the bike charging from 30-71% in 11 minutes.
Is that fast? Absolutely. Is that faster than any other electric motorcycle you can buy today? Definitely, but it still doesn’t seem to match the 10-minute fill-up claim. Rather, it seems to be around a 40-50% charge in 11 minutes.
If Lightning can actually bring a bike to market with those charging specs, though, that will still be a huge step forward for the industry.
Now we’ll just have to see if they can do it. The company still seems to be producing and delivering Lightning Strike motorcycles, but the last few times I spoke with Hatfield, he still wasn’t providing any figures on just how many bikes are being built. The production volume certainly seems quite low based on the dearth of Lightning bikes seen on social media or YouTube, especially compared to the many Zero or LiveWire owners constantly uploading videos and images of their own new e-motos.
So anecdotal evidence seems to point to low production numbers, but if the company can really offer a 50% recharge in 10 minutes, then perhaps those figures will be rising soon.
Do I need my e-motos to recharge that quickly? Probably not, most of the time. But do I want them to be able to? You can bet your riding pants I do!
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Tesla has quietly expanded its new MultiPass feature to more regions across Europe, allowing owners to charge at third-party stations directly through their Tesla account — no separate app, card, or registration required.
The feature, which first launched in the Netherlands earlier this year, is now rolling out to additional countries, including Germany and France, according to Tesla’s own support page. The update builds on Tesla’s push to make charging as frictionless as possible — not just at Superchargers, but across an entire network of compatible public chargers.
What is Tesla MultiPass?
Tesla describes MultiPass as a “seamless charging option” that lets drivers find and charge at third-party charging stations using their existing Tesla Account. By partnering with a network aggregator, Tesla now connects to over 1,000 charging networks and thousands of stations across Europe.
In practice, MultiPass aims to make the charging experience at third-party stations as close to a Tesla Supercharger as possible — you can simply tap your Tesla key card or select the stall in your Tesla app at a supported charger, and the cost of the session is automatically billed to your Tesla account. The same payment method used for Supercharging applies, and sessions appear right in your Tesla app’s charging history, unified with your Supercharger activity.
Tesla’s goal is to reduce the number of sign-ups and third-party accounts you need to charge outside of Tesla’s own network. MultiPass turns the Tesla key card into a universal charging credential.
Tesla owners simply need to activate MultiPass through the Tesla app:
- Open the Tesla app and check “Messages” for the MultiPass invitation
- Tap Learn More → Next
- Follow on-screen steps to activate your key card via NFC
Once activated, you can start charging sessions in two ways:
- Tap your key card directly on the supported third-party charger
- Or, start the session in the Tesla app, selecting the stall remotely
Your session appears instantly in the app, complete with cost and time details, just like any Tesla Supercharger session.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla already operates the world’s most reliable and extensive DC fast-charging network. Supercharger is probably the best thing Tesla has ever done.
But outside of the Supercharger footprint, especially in Europe’s dense urban areas, third-party chargers fill critical gaps.
MultiPass eliminates one of the last friction points for Tesla drivers to use these third-party charging stations.
It looks like after a short testing phase in the Netherlands, Tesla is now ready to expand access throughout Europe.
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Environment
It seems like Elon Musk stoking a civil war in England isn’t good for Tesla’s sales there
Tesla’s EV registrations in the UK, its biggest market in Europe, took a dramatic hit in October 2025 — just 511 units — marking one of the brand’s weakest showings in recent memory. That’s a steep drop from 971 in October 2024 and 2,677 in October 2023. The tone of the market is shifting.
Maybe Tesla’s CEO stoking a civil war in England isn’t helping the automaker’s demand in the important market.
Tesla’s sales have been struggling in Europe over the past two years, and the decline has been accelerating in 2025.
While some believed that things were stabilizing for the American automaker in Europe, the October data tells a different story. Tesla had its worst month of deliveries of the year in 12 of its 15 biggest European markets.
As Tesla sales in Germany crashed over the last year, partly because Tesla CEO Elon Musk supported the far-right AfD party, the UK became Tesla’s biggest market in Europe.
But now it looks like the UK is going in the same direction.
According to registration data, Tesla delivered only 511 vehicles in the UK in October 2025. Tesla has over 50 stores in the country – that’s an average of roughly 10 vehicles per location for the whole month.
It’s the worst monthly performance since October 2022.
Much as Tesla’s demand crashed in Germany, Elon Musk’s politics might be behind the lower demand in the UK.
The CEO regularly comments on UK politics and often shares inflammatory reports about crimes perpetrated by immigrants. He also shares misleading crime and immigration statistics aimed at spreading hatred.
After he tweeted that “Civil war is inevitable. Just a question of when.”, he was accused of stoking a civil war in the country.
Musk’s public commentary on UK topics has sparked backlash and resulted in his “unfavorability rating” reaching 80% in the country.
Electrek’s Take
Meanwhile, Tesla’s demand cliff is opening the door to competitors. BYD is now expected to outsell Tesla in the whole year of 2025 in the UK despite Tesla having a presence in the market for much longer.
Not many industry watchers thought it would happen this fast.
Tesla appears to be completely missing out on the surge of EV sales in Europe due to a mix of having a stagnant EV lineup, brand problems brought on by a controversial CEO, and increased competition.
In the US, Musk is believed to have cost Tesla about 1 million sales over the last 3 years.
I think it will soon be approaching this number in Europe.
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Rondo Energy and energy producer EDP are installing a massive 100 MWh renewable-powered heat battery at HEINEKEN’s brewery in Lisbon, Portugal. The project will deliver round-the-clock renewable steam and reduce emissions without altering the facility’s beer brewing process.
Brewing HEINEKEN with zero-carbon steam
The Rondo Heat Battery (RHB) will be the biggest deployed in the beverage industry worldwide. It can store electricity as high-temperature heat using refractory bricks, then convert that heat into 24/7 steam, all without burning fossil fuels.
At HEINEKEN’s Central de Cervejas e Bebidas Brewery and Malting Plant, the heat battery system will supply 7 MW of steam, powered by renewable electricity from onsite solar and the grid. That steam is identical to steam created by gas-fired boilers, but without the carbon pollution.
EDP is providing the renewable electricity and will deliver the steam directly to HEINEKEN via a Heat-as-a-Service model. Rondo is supplying the battery, and HEINEKEN gets to ditch fossil fuels without retooling its brewing process.
Why this matters
This project is a big win for industrial decarbonization. High-temperature steam is one of the most complex parts of manufacturing to electrify, and the beer industry runs on it. HEINEKEN’s Lisbon site already uses solar panels for electricity and electric heat pumps for hot water, and this move helps it go even further.
It’s part of HEINEKEN’s “Brew a Better World” plan to hit net zero emissions by 2040 and decarbonize all of its global production sites by 2030.
Additionally, the deployment aligns with Portugal’s national target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.
The bigger picture
With the European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Catalyst backing this and other Rondo projects with €75 million in funding, this Lisbon installation is just the beginning. Rondo’s technology enables energy-hungry industries to switch from fossil fuels to renewable electricity without compromising 24/7 operations.
Rondo CEO Eric Trusiewicz sums it up: “We are thrilled to be installing our first Rondo Heat Battery in Iberia, and to support HEINEKEN to reach its goals. We look forward to helping industries across Iberia cut costs and carbon, and help Iberia capitalize on the opportunity.”
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