Efesto, founded in 2012, is a French-Italian electric mobility company that provides bespoke electric or hybrid powertrain solutions for automotive, aerospace, marine, and industrial applications. Their latest solution is this ‘200Novantanove Hybrid kit’ that bolts onto a Ducati Panigale 1299 superbike, and was showcased at the recently concluded EICMA 2019.

It is said to ramp up the power figure of the Italian from 205-odd horsepower to a freakish 300 horses while being all friendly to the environment. You’ll still get the ‘Brobdingnagian’ L-twin Superquadro powerhouse, and assisting it, or rather, pushing insanity boundaries, will be an electric motor churning out an additional 108 horsepower and 110 lb-ft of torque.

This puts the 1299 Panigale onto 'hyper-bike' territory.

200Novantanove, (which translates to 200 Ninety-Nine, stands for 200 hp of the Panigale engine and 99 hp of the electric motor, says Luca Morfino, MD of Efesto}, is an electric motor kit specially designed and developed by Efesto to tether onto one of the world’s most potent twin-cylinder motorcycle. This kit is being developed for showcasing their technology to companies wishing to design a hybrid motorcycle from scratch.

Efesto had put up a stall at the previous edition of the EICMA 2018 in which they showcased what was called the IBEX Quattro70, a motorcycle with an internal combustion engine of the 155 hp Ducati Panigale 959 accompanied by an IP65 electric motor of 70 hp and 110 lb-ft of torque. This porotype had a secondary shaft with a second pinion attached to the twin-pot 955cc Superquadro-engine that made it possible to extract power from the electric motor alone without using the gearbox.

The setup on the 200Novantanove equipped Panigale 1299 is quite similar. The most exciting element of the 200Novantanove is the ability to harness and control two engines individually in four different riding modes, selectable from a selector on the left handlebar. It can be changed on-the-fly under certain conditions.

1. Pure Thermic mode lets the L-Twin engine do all the talking while recharging the battery pack simultaneously either by regenerative braking or acting as a generator.

2. Pure electric is a 40-minute all-electric commuting mode where the throttle controls only the electric motor that lets you run at a max 45 mph. This mode is best used in urban commutes, achieving zero-emission.

3. Boost mode takes advantage of both the L-Twin and the electric motor combining the power and torque to produce a lathering 300 hp and 218 lb-ft of torque.

4. Custom mode lets the rider set the desired combination of torque and power of the hybrid power unit.

A proprietary anti-spinning and anti-wheeling electric control system embedded with the kit controls the motorcycle’s behavior while the power is surging through the secondary shaft alone. The electronics have been developed in-house by Efesto and guarantee the best seamless performance. The electric motor is a patented counter-rotating device that helps to balance out the rotation of the wheels.

The Pani had to endure a few tweaks to harness this kit that includes the electric motor bolted under the rear swingarm, inverter below the radiator at the front, and the high voltage battery pack positioned below the saddle and under the tail. The entire kit weighs a mere 57 lbs, and they could achieve this by making the L-Twin continuously recharge the batteries, which allowed them to limit the size of the battery pack and, therefore, the total weight of the system. (There is no plug-in option to charge the battery.)

This brings the weight of the 1299 Panigale from 364 lbs to 427 lbs. So in comparison, in full Boost mode, the power-to-weight ratio of this lunatic machine is even higher than the mighty mad Kawasaki Ninja H2R. That is more than any production motorcycle on the planet.

Now that is a heck of a statement to make.

Since the 1299 Panigale’s suspension units are originally set to carry twin passengers, Mr. Morfino is confident that the stock Marzocchi and Sachs units can accommodate the additional weight without hampering handling characteristics. But Efesto does have MUPO SBK 46 and AB1 EVO setups on standby and will test them in action in due course.

The 200Novantanove will be put to the test on the bench and road/track conditions before it can go commercial later in 2020. Expect the designs to get even more compact and architectural. The kit will only be available for the L-twin Panigales’, the 959, 1199, and 1299 for a price yet to be declared. When asked about developing hybrid kits for other motorcycle models, Morfino slyly commented with “Surprise for EICMA 2020 !!”

Efesto believes it has a shiny bright future wherein they could be even developing their own brand of electric/hybrid motorcycles. How exciting is that? We, for one, can’t wait.

- Luca Morfino, Managing Director - Efesto Sarl