The Current News: May 29

It’s 1903 all over again, and with so many companies flooding our inbox with electric motorcycle news, The Current channel on TheVintagent.com is presenting a weekly roundup by our EV Editor Tim Huber.  Dig it!

Sarolea Streetfighter

Back in July of 2018 we reported on Sarolea introducing the beautiful Manx7, a full-faired, retro-inspired, street-legal ebike derived from the Belgian outfit’s SP7 TT racer. Fast forward to this week, and the high-end ebike purveyors have pulled the cover off the latest iteration of the Manx7, and it’s every bit as breathtaking as you’d expect. Penned by Serge Rusak, the so-called “Streetfighter” version of the Manx7 was born out of a collaborative effort with The Mighty Machines. The limited edition model reportedly packs a 163hp (120kW) motor with a whopping 331ft-lbs of torque, and is capable of doing 0-60 in three-seconds. Range is over 200-miles on a single charge, and the 22kWh battery can reach an 80-percent charge in only 20-minutes. The thing also has the same AI integration found in the base model.

With just 20 units to sell, the “MM.01” project is being sold as a package bundle, comprised of the bike itself, a matching carbon fiber Hedon Heroine helmet, a super dapper slim cut tailored suit with removable padding from Café Costume, and a fixed blade Damascus steel knife with carbon (G10) handle/grip. Unsurprisingly, the naked Sarolea package is far from cheap, with an MSRP of €69,999 (or $78,250), though damn is it pretty.

Ebike Thesis

Dubbed the “MAYA” — short for “Most Advanced, Yet Adaptable” — this fascinating-looking ebike was Josh Probst’s senior thesis project at the University of Houston. The recent Magna Cum Laude graduate says MAYA’s chassis was designed to be highly modular, allowing for a wide array of different aesthetic and powertrain options to be bolted on.

Despite being built by a 22-year-old undergrad college student, MAYA boasts a remarkably finished appearance (though I can’t help but notice it bares a striking resemblance to the Essence E-Raw). Either way, kudos to the kid, and hopefully this isn’t the last we hear of him.

Team Twente’s “Eclipse GP”

Made up of a couple dozen students from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, Electric Superbike Twente has just unveiled its second race bike, which features an all-new powertrain. Known as the “Eclipse GP”, the highly developed two-wheeler is slated to compete in this year’s upcoming Moto-E Championship. Last year, the team’s “Liion GP” — which made 200hp and offered a 0-60mph time of less than three-seconds — claimed the European title, though Team Twente is well aware that the rapid progression of EV technology means resting on their laurels isn’t an option if they hope to recreate their feat from 2018. To ensure the best results possible, the outfit recruited seasoned supersport racer, Jor Hamberg (#95), to pilot the Eclipse for the 2019 season. Just like with gas-powered race bikes, competition fosters growth and advancement that helps motorcycling progress as a whole. And based on the machines currently being campaigned in electric classes all over the world, we have a lot to look forward to in the coming years.

Ebike At A SKatepark

There’s no shortage of awesome footage on professional MX rider, Josh Hill’s Instagram page (the guy has over 300K subs for a reason) though an upload of his from last week certainly caught our attention. The clip shows Hill piloting an Alta bike around a concrete skatepark — wonderfully demonstrating the ebike’s power and agility. As someone who grew up riding 20” BMX, and has spent untold amount of times at my local skatepark, this video was right up my alley, though I imagine just about anyone who’s ridden a motorcycle can appreciate the insane level of skill and control Hill has over the bike.

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Moto X Park 📹 @buttery_films

A post shared by Josh Hill (@joshill75) on May 2, 2019 at 5:45pm PDT

Silence Expands Into Europe

With more than 7,000 scooters sold since the company was first founded eight-years-ago, Silence — an electric scooter company — has more electric vehicle registrations in its native Spain than any other make. The Barcelona-based brand’s S01 model e-scooter has been a massive hit in its home market, prompting the company to set its sights on the larger European market. The first major step in this plan occurred this week when the Spanish firm opened its first flagship store in Luxembourg. Roughly comparable to a 125cc gas-powered scooter, the S01 sports a sleek modern design, LED lighting, and removable “trolley-style”, batteries that can be wheeled out when removed from the scoot. The company is also reportedly offering what it calls a “Solar Tree”, which will charge multiple batteries without being connected to any grid.

CAB Unveils The Wildly Potent “RECON” eBike

Though CAB Motorworks was founded back in 2013, it wasn’t until 2016 that the Southern California-based startup popped up on the radar of the motorcycling and ebike world when its CAB EAGLE was featured in a number of popular publications. Using the hype and momentum gained in 2016, CAB has just debuted its latest fully-electric two-wheeler; the CAB RECON. Don’t let the pedals fool you, the RECON’s 20 kW “Sine Wave System” supposedly makes it the most powerful electric bike on the planet, generating an insane 320ft-lbs of torque — 100% more than the EAGLE — in a super lightweight package. The RECON also boasts a 20% increase in top-speed over its predecessor, which means it tops out at a bit over 60mph, though it gets there damn quick. The RECON also uses some neat ways to dissipate heat, including housing the (weather-proof) controller outside the “body cavity” allowing for better airflow. Other highlights include a 19” front wheel (with 8” of travel) and an 18” rear (with 10” of travel), and a shockingly effective regenerative braking system.

While CAB’s RECON looks like an incredibly fun machine, it’s unfortunately out of most rider’s reach, with a base-price of $10,499 — though that number jumps up to over $14K if one opts for all the add-ons.

Bajaj E-Scooter Spotted

Though the company isn’t very well known in the US, Bajaj Auto is a powerhouse of a motorcycle manufacturer in India. The firm makes up an impressive share of the overall motorized two-wheeler market in its native region, however the company for whatever reason has been reluctant to jump into the ever-growing electric scooter segment. That’s all about to change however, as earlier this year at a press conference Bajaj announced that it would begin selling e-scoots under a new brand called “Urbanite”.

Flash-cut to earlier this week and spy shots and video was revealed of what’s believed to be Bajaj’s inaugural electric scooter. Overall the industrial design is pretty unremarkable, however the fact such a large company is joining the ebike fray is definitely big news.

Ather To Offer “Affordable” Electric Scooter

Roughly a year ago, Ather Energy announced that it was in the process of developing two new electric scooter models. Ather followed this announcement with the release of the model “450”, though its pricing greatly exceeded that of your typical internal-combustion-engine-powered scooter. In an effort to expand, Ather is now focusing on delivering a more affordable electric scooter model that can be sold in much higher volume. Details are still incredibly scant, but the company has also announced that it plans on releasing a full-on electric motorcycle at some point in the next couple years as well.

India’s Plans To Go Fully Electric By 2025

It’s well known that India is by far the largest motorcycle/scooter market on the planet, making up around 1/6th of the global market, with literally millions of two-wheeled units sold annually. While China has been quick to embrace EV technology, the same can’t really be said for India, as ebikes and escooters only account for a small minority of overall moto sales — despite the number (126,000 units) roughly doubling over last year. With this (and a lot of pollution) in mind, India’s government has just announced an extremely bold plan: for all new three-wheeled vehicles to be fully-electric by (April) 2023, and all sub-151cc two-wheelers go to green by (April) 2025. With more than 75% of registered vehicles in India being of the two and three-wheeled variety, it’s hard to overstate the significance of this news.

The plan comes from the Niti Aayog (policy commission) think tank headed up by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. This announcement doesn’t include larger displacement offerings, which, while put out more emissions, only make up a small percent of India’s motorcycle/scooter sales. The plan does however make mention of the government offering up more subsidies for electrics as well as an additional investment in charging infrastructure. This massive push will not only result in massive growth and development in the Indian EV sector, but will almost certainly have a profound impact on the global market as well. We’ll be sure to report on updates on this monumental announcement as they come in.

[China has had this plan in place for 6 years , and currently has 3 Million e-scooters on its urban roads, and leads the world in EV sales – pd’o]