But finding a two-wheeled EV that feels "normal"—let alone great—after years of riding gasoline-powered bikes borders on miracle territory.

And that's where Alta Motors' battery-powered RedShift SM plants its flag. Alta co-founder and CEO Marc Fenigstein says that while it's nice the bike doesn't spew CO2, the company chose electric power for performance. "The idea was to build a bike that is faster than the ones we already owned," he says. Applying 40 horsepower to a bike that weighs just 275 pounds is good for an 85 mph top speed, but even that is hardly enough to stand out in a market where superbikes flirt with 200 horses and accelerate to 60 mph in two seconds.