The Italian Volt Lacama lets you choose between cafe racer and naked

The Italian Volt Lacama will be available in two versions when it launches, in another twist for the project that started in the middle of the 2010s.

It was seven years ago that Italian Volt announced its Lacama electric motorcycle project, but it was not until earlier this year that the Lacama 2.0 was revealed, before the ‘1.0’ had even been put into production. Now, the ‘2.0’ tag is gone, replaced by not one but two names.

The Italian Volt Lacama will be available now in the ‘Monoposto’ and ‘Biposto’ variants. The naming convention is made obvious by looking at the saddle, since ‘monoposto’ translates from Italian as ‘single-seater’ and ‘biposto’ translates as ‘two-seater’. 

Producing 150bhp and 170lb ft of peak torque in either variant, the Italian Volt Lacama certainly packs a punch when twisting the right grip. 

The claimed 150bhp is an increase of 3bhp over the previous 2.0 iteration of the Lacama, but whether many of the components that were set for the 2.0 are being carried over to the Monoposto and Biposto is uncertain.

Such features include its riding modes, including its fastest ‘Rocket!’ mode, which was one of four that were supposed to appear on the 2.0. The others were ‘Sport’, ‘Eco’, and ‘Wet’. 

The rest of the electronics package on the 2.0 included traction control and anti-wheelie, which should probably be expected to carry over to the new versions, especially with Italian Volt quoting “cutting-edge electronics” as part of the bikes’ respective packages. 

The capacity of the Lacama’s battery was not published in the 2.0 iteration and is not published now with the two ‘posti’ either. We do know that the battery set to be used in the 2.0 was a fluid system from Tazzari EV, which took over Italian Volt in 2022, with a battery management system (BMS) from the same Italian company, and cells from Samsung NCA. We wouldn’t be surprised if the battery remained the same from one version of the bike to another at this stage of its development.

It seems that most of the bike’s chassis parts have remained the same between 2.0, and Monoposto and Biposto, with single-piece casting used to produce both the main frame and the swingarm. The motorcycle also uses adjustable 43mm front forks from Ohlins, and an adjustable rear shock from the same manufacturer.

The 2.0 would have used Pirelli tyres and Brembo brakes. While this is not made explicitly clear in the social media posts from Italian Volt confirming the new Monoposto and Biposto, the images clearly show Brembo callipers and Pirelli-branded tyres fitted to both bikes.

One of the more interesting features of the Lacama 2.0 was the modular bodywork, which would allow the owner to change the look of the bike between multiple designs, the standard being a kind of neo-retro naked look. It’s not clear whether this modularity, this ability to mix-and-match bodywork pieces as you like, is carried over from the 2.0 to the new versions. For example, the 2.0 allowed the prospective owner to choose whether their bike should have one seat or two; but that decision is now made by the wider choice between the Monoposto and Biposto variants themselves, which also carry other differences. 

Although both produce the same power and torque figures, and both have a 160-mile (257km) urban riding range, the Monoposto features a rear cowl where the Biposto has space for a pillion, and the overall aesthetic of the Monoposto is affirmatively ‘cafe racer’, compared to the Biposto’s more angular, naked look. In the images from Italian Volt, the two are also distinguishable by colour, with the Biposto in yellow and the Monoposto in black; whether there will be any choice in colour on either version is also unclear.

As you’d probably gathered, there are still a load of unknowns. With EICMA on the horizon, and Italian Volt set to attend, there may well be an announcement soon that’ll clear things up.