Four years after becoming the first manufacturer to debut an electric motorcycle at the Dakar Rally, Italian manufacturer Tacita has announced they are returning to the most grueling rally raid on earth in a bigger way. Back in 2020, their effort was limited to just 20 km on the last day but the brand says that pushed them to think big and they are now ready to fully compete in the upcoming race with their latest weapon.

Best known for their exclusive electric motorcycles, Tacita will be challenging the dunes in the “Dakar Future – Mission 1000” category reserved for vehicles with new technologies. The team will be doing so aboard its flagship model called the Discanto. Perhaps not the most aesthetically pleasing design but as they say, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, so we’ll see what they have up their sleeve. To their credit, Tacita says they believe in putting their bikes through the most extreme environments before being made available for the public and are eager to put the Discanto to the test in the toughest rally in the world. 

The manufacturer’s team, Tacita Formula Corsa, will race with two bikes and a complete team of mechanics and electric and electronic professionals. According to Tacita, the Discanto boasts a new chassis and an innovative balancing of the battery packs with rebalanced weight distribution. The bikes weigh a claimed 397 lbs (180 kg) and can reach a top speed deliberately limited to 150 km/h. 

To ensure a competitive ‘Dakar pace’, Tacita says they have developed a battery swap system that allows replacement with charged batteries in a few minutes during the break granted in the race for refueling. Interestingly, the Tacita Discanto (like all models of the Turin-based company) has features that differ from other electric motorcycles like a five-speed mechanical gearbox, liquid cooling for the engine and controller, and the battery management system (BMS).

In addition to 100% electric vehicles, the team will have a 100% “NO NOISE / NO CO2” race space, thanks to the presence of Tacita’s T-STATION, a mobile and autonomous photovoltaic energy production and storage solution with solar panels, wind generators and hydrogen. This creates enough energy supply capacity to power the race space, and recharge the batteries of the rally bikes.

“Tacita is an exciting adventure,” says Luca Oddo, CEO of the brand. “And not only for the participation in the most difficult competition in the world such as the Dakar, but for the technological challenges that see us as protagonists.”

The Tacita Discanto will be the company’s flagship production model for 2025, while 2024 already sees the models currently in production, both road and off-road, almost sold out. An encouraging result for the company founded in 2011 by Pierpaolo Rigo and his wife Dinamaria Ollino, respectively President and Vice President of Tacita, both motorcycle enthusiasts with a dream to realize.