The cleanest dirt bike ever

Every part of society needs to be decarbonised. Industry has a huge responsibility to lead the way to a fossil free society. That includes the automotive industry.

To decarbonise industrial production chains, we need to break down silos and collaborate far beyond industry borders. That’s why Vattenfall teamed up with Swedish electric motorcycle maker CAKE, combining CAKE's expertise in product innovation with Vattenfall’s expertise in electrifying industries.

Our aim: To produce the world’s cleanest motorcycle by 2025, re-inventing every link in the production chain for the electric CAKE Kalk OR bike. Without carbon offsetting, because we need to tackle the root cause, not compensate for it.

One bike built to change how all vehicles are made

Aren’t electric vehicles already fossil free? The answer is no. While they don’t emit carbon emissions when used, they create emissions when manufactured, transported and assembled. These emissions can sometimes be 70% higher than petrol models.

Our objective isn’t just to remove emissions from the production chain of one bike, but to inspire the entire automotive industry to do the same and go fossil free.

To do this, we aim to be radically transparent about our journey. We’re sharing every breakthrough and setback along the way, and open-sourcing the methodology and data from the project for anyone to use. Because doing it ourselves is great, but inspiring others to do it is even better.

“Normally valuable R&D findings are classified, but the reality is that the climate doesn’t care about company secrets”, says Paul Morel, Brand Campaign Manager, Vattenfall.

What’s a cube got to do with an electric bike?

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Watch the video: Vattenfall and CAKE are aiming at making the first truly fossil-free vehicle.

In 2022, we created The Cube to spread the word about the project in a visual way. We illustrated the bike’s original carbon weight of 1,186kg CO₂e in a way that anyone can understand – a cube measuring 637m³, showing the actual volume of the bike’s emissions when the project started and then seeing how the cube will diminish over the years. 
 
The fact is that everything that is produced results in some kind of carbon footprint – even if the product doesn’t create any emissions when used. 
 
By creating a three-dimensional visualisation of our bike’s carbon footprint with The Cube, we’re aiming to build broader understanding of the urgent global issue of emissions. First, by raising awareness among consumers, making it easier to grasp the size of carbon footprints. Second, by inspiring more manufacturers to reveal and reduce the hidden carbon footprint of their products, ultimately helping the automotive industry break free.

Join the ride

Vattenfall and CAKE are inviting the world's best and brightest partners and suppliers to join the ride as the project unfolds.

Öhlins Racing, the leading manufacturer of suspension products, was the first official project partner and has initiated its own process to decarbonise its production chain.

“Being a part of Cleanest Dirt Bike Ever has inspired us to explore new, innovative ways of minimizing our carbon footprint,” says Henrik Johansson, Managing Director, Öhlins Racing.

SKF, one of the world's largest bearing manufacturers, has joined the project to explore how to develop bearings produced with lowest possible emissions. We aim to incorporate low-emission bearings in key areas of the bike, such as the steering, wheels, frame and e-motor.

Most recently, Hydro, a global aluminium company from Norway, has joined the project. Aluminium accounts for 27% of the Kalk OR's total carbon emissions. We’re now identifying the opportunities for Hydro’s recycled aluminium with near-zero emissions, which will play a crucial role in reducing the aluminium footprint of the bike.