Tesla 'Model M' Electric Motorcycle Blends Model S Visuals With a Supersport Aesthetic

Objectively speaking, just because Tesla is a top 10 company world-wide in terms of market cap, that doesn’t necessarily make them invincible. Except that... it kind of does? They’ve got “F U” money to go out and mass-produce anything they can think of. Thankfully, they’re taking their sweet time with making new “stuff”, which means Elon Musk is very much aware of how difficult it is to bring a successful new product to market.

Just recently he was on Joe Rogan’s podcast telling him that people greatly underestimate just how hard it is to produce something. The design and testing phases are relatively easy – with production always proving to be the biggest challenge.

Anyway, as far as a potential Tesla motorbike is concerned, let’s just get the negatives out of the way. The first roadblock being Elon Musk himself, who once stated that his company is never going to get into motorcycles.

He said this back in 2018 during a shareholder meeting. Here’s the full quote: “I actually used to ride motorcycles when I was a kid, and just did like dirt biking for like 8 years or something. I had a road bike, until I was 17 and was almost killed by a truck. So, we’re not going to do motorcycles.”

That sounds pretty definitive, yes, but who knows what types of technologies will be available in the future? Maybe once all/most vehicles on the road are fitted with crash avoidance systems, riding bikes will become infinitely safer, and Elon might be singing a different tune.

Until then, it’s unlikely that he would compromise his vision on safety just so you can ride a crotch rocket to 60 mph in one second flat or something. Besides, I think flagship Tesla cars are already quick enough in terms of acceleration, and it’s not like a motorbike would be a great deal faster.

What about the positives?

Well, the positives are obvious. Just ask any rider and they’ll tell you that riding a bike is cheaper than driving a car, that parking is a heck of a lot easier, insurance is cheaper, it takes less work to clean and finally, there’s that feeling of freedom and immersion that you simply cannot replicate in a larger vehicle.

Then there’s the fact that should Tesla ever dip its toes into the EV motorcycle segment, it would surely lead to a more rapid expansion of the latter, unlike what we’ve seen so far with legacy bike-makers being slow to adopt battery electric power.

Of course, there are quite a few solid choices if you want an EV bike today. Maybe there’s more than a few if you’re happy just with something that’s got two wheels, but if you want a beefy naked bike or even a supersport model, your only options are to look at the likes of the Triumph TE-1, Harley Davidson’s LiveWire brand, the Damon Hypersport, plus a few others – mostly from startups.

My point is, you’re not going to see Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Ducati and Aprilia replace their best-selling models with electric-only ones any time soon.

What’s the deal with this rendering?

Glad you asked, because quite a bit of thought went into it. Our exclusive Tesla “Model M” rendering is loosely based on the Ducati Panigale V4, but apart from the tail design and the design of the license plate holder, this certainly doesn’t look like a Ducati anymore.

In fact, look closely and you’ll notice all the Tesla badges and branding (calipers). Meanwhile, the wheels, headlights and mirrors are “borrowed” from the Model S, making this design truly one of a kind.

What’s funny is that strapping shrunken Model S headlights to a motorcycle kind of makes it look like an old Yamaha R1 or an R6. You know, the ones that kind of looked like wasps? It’s pretty cool, actually.

Other visual highlights include the motor cover looking like a Cybertruck wheel, and the Plaid badge.

As for the colors, we went with the five available ones that you can get today on a Model S, meaning Pearl White Multi-Coat, Solid Black, Deep Blue Metallic, Stealth Gray, and Ultra Red.

How might a Tesla motorcycle conquer the segment?

For starters, it would need to outshine its rivals in terms of range, battery performance, acceleration, everything. It would need a larger battery while keeping the weight as low as possible. Charge times would need to be fast too, something like 0 to 80% in 10 minutes tops, with over 200 miles of range – preferably way over.

Acceleration would probably be the least of its problems. But if it would keep up with the second-gen / upcoming Tesla Roadster, then I reckon everyone would be happy.

As of looks, now that I think about it, Elon Musk would probably never design a conventional-looking bike. He’d probably want it to look like something out of a sci-fi movie, just as he did the Cybertruck.