Elon Musk has absolutely no plans to build a Tesla motorbike

Don’t expect a Tesla-made electric motorcycle anytime soon, Elon Musk has absolutely zero love for the machines.

Revealed during Tesla’s shareholder meeting, Musk explained that the company would never develop motorcycles because he almost died when riding one at the age of 17. Amusingly, the question arose simply because a member of the audience decided it was fitting to compliment Musk’s choice of leather jacket before linking it the possibility of a Tesla motorcycle.

The dream of a Tesla-made electric motorbike may not be coming due to Musk’s bad experience as a kid, but it turns out he doesn’t actually hate bikes. In fact, he explained that he grew up riding dirt bikes for eight years. He shared that he had a street bike until he was 17 but after nearly being hit and killed by a truck at the age of 17 he ditched the life of bikes entirely.

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Musk may say no to electric motorbikes, but they are on the way from other manufacturers. Zero Motorcycles is just one of them and its bikes certainly seem to give combustion bikes a good run for their money. With Harley Davidson also eyeing up the electric bike market, it’s looking like there’s less reason for Tesla to enter into the space in the first place.

That said, why should Tesla be expected to enter into the motorbike business? Just because it’s working on EVs, that doesn’t mean it has to start building electrified motorbikes. Tesla is already working on plenty of different projects at the moment, with its electric truck plans, solar roof tiles, energy storage walls and battery “gigafactory”, does it need yet another project to take on?

Perhaps things will change if someone manages to nail autonomous motorbike driving without needing a robot rider to do so. If motorbikes can drive themselves safely, or stay stable like Honda’s self-balancing bike, maybe Musk might become interested once again.

That said, would you trust a Tesla-made bike? After Model 3 production woes have managed to resolve themselves, the company was then hit by another issue around unsafe braking distances and poor workplace satisfaction. Musk says a fix is coming for the braking, but can it resolve it’s own work ethic.