First of all, thanks guys for the responses so far!!

I think it is useful to give some more details about our trip:

@mollydog
1. the challenge we face is to make an electric vehicle; we choose a motorcycle and we will build it ourselves.
2. 30 students, because that's the amount of people we think we need for this project to work. We need to build the bike, need to plan everything and need to look for sponsors
3. we are doing this because we want to promote electric vehicles. By travelling around the world, we want to show that electric driving is possible.
4. No, our goal is not to make profit, but to promote electric driving. The costs for the students is the work they do for the project; so we need funding also

The suggestion given about travelling like a military operation is indeed how we think we will be doing it. Important to know is that we won't be traveling with 30 motorcycles. The goal is to run at least 1 motorcycle and driver, who will be traveling the whole trip. The rest of the team will be there for support, and thus likely in cars. (We are still figuring out what kind of vehicles we want to bring and how many, we also need to sleep and this will be probably in tents next to the road...)

And yes! The HU site is indeed very helful!! The reason we started on this forum is to start a discussion about our specific trip. We know we have to take into account a lot of different things and we don't want to miss any information. So every comment will be considered and was very helpful so far!

Since you need sponsors to pay ... Perhaps approach one of several serious elec. vehicle manufacturers ... either Car or Bike: IE: Zero, Mission, Tesla, Nissan, Honda, BMW and others.

All are invested in elec. vehicles. Tesla, Nissan, BMW and Honda all have CASH to sponsor such a project and are very supportive in promoting Elec. vehicles. Perhaps you could work on the design and production Side By Side? In partnership with one of these manufactures on designing and building your bike?

You could do it your self ... but partnering with a big manufacturer could:
1. Help with financing of project
2. Provide experience and expertise in the design/production
3. Allow the use of latest proprietary break through technologies.
4. Provide excellent educational opportunity of "Hands On" experience for your students.
Anyway, just an idea.

This is very good ...
but you already are not the first to cross continents on elec. bikes/scooters. But 100% worth while. GO FOR IT!
Others are doing it now or have done it.

I'm glad to hear this, so many are simply out to make a "quick buck" off the latest fad.

All good!
I would build at least two bikes ... that way you would have a complete, spare bike. Also, perhaps divide your group into 3 groups, 10 people each?

Each group would cover a specific section of the world, work in rotation. One group could work in advance of the bike/Mini Bus. All would rotate every month or so.

With 10 per group, all could fit in ONE Mini Bus. Your spare bike could hang on rear rack with generator/parts. The Mini Bus could be Dual or Triple Fuel type vehicle: Diesel, Natural Gas/Propane, Electric, switchable.

The other two groups would be resting or working ahead to prepare for arrival of the bike/Mini bus. This would save HUGE money on Carnet and freight costs ... only ONE support vehicle to deal with. (of course advance group would need some sort of vehicles too)

I would not sleep on side of the road in India. Hostels/Hotels are SO CHEAP, not worth hassle to camp. Camping takes (and wastes) a lot of riding time, especially for a BIG GROUP. If route is planned carefully and stays on schedule, you could arrive in a town every day. (mostly) Your advance group would have EVERYTHING waiting, including food.

Camping could be done when you have IDEAL location, and TIME, (not the side of a road ... No one would be able to sleep) All the best!

If the single support vehicle breaks down? The trips delayed.
The suggestion of two bikes is good, and should be extended to the support vehicleS. Two support vehicles would be good.

And keep the number of people at any one time down to say 10. The rest can stay at home, do a change over of say 5 people from time to time - thus you have involvement of everyone and they are not away for a very long time (which is hard to organize for most people).

So you might end up with promoting electric vehicles by burning tons of fossil fuels in your generator(s) and cars?
Some people might think that you prove the opposite of what you like

Yes, we are completely aware of that. But what we want to promote is electric driving concerning the vehicle. The motorcycle will be driving electrically. The problem is that the infrastructure right now is not ready for electric driving. However, in the future it is not unrealistic to think there will be more charging possibilities and driving electrically will be possible without aggregate. At the moment the only thing we are able to promote and change is the electric vehicle, not the infrastructure.