There’s a new long-range electric motorcycle champion, and it’s made by a company with American roots. Zero Motorcycles, which was founded in California two decades ago, just bagged the Guinness World Record for the longest journey by an electric motorbike on a single charge.

A Zero DS went 271.2 miles (436.5 kilometers) on a full charge from the French Alps to the Mediterranean, smashing the previous record from 2025, when a Verge TS Pro went 193 miles (310.6 km) on a single charge.

Zero’s record run, which happened last month, had a total of three bikes involved, but only the DS managed to go so far, and there’s a big reason for that: it was fitted with the optional Power Tank, which ups the bike’s battery capacity from 15.6 kilowatt-hours to 19.2 kWh. Mind you, this is an official option from Zero, which can be installed at a dealer, and not something that was jerry-rigged.

Belgian Jelle Verstaen was the rider who took home the title, but it’s worth noting that the route excluded major highways and two-lane roads. Instead, Zero says the riders took the route less traveled, favoring single-lane roads where they could maintain a consistent pace. The convoy left in the evening and drove through the night until the next morning, when a major storm hit the bike that would set the new range record.

Zero Motorcycles didn’t provide specifics about the route or the average speed, but it mentioned that where the road conditions and speed limits allowed, riders aimed for around 32 miles per hour (52 kilometers per hour).

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