The Brutus electric motorcycle is a stylish beast of a machine. It has a manual transmission, an odd choice for an electric bike, and they claim a 100 mile range. They’re pricing it up in Harley territory, though; it’s estimated to cost about $35,000.
The Lito Sora has a similar shape but more of a high-tech style; they use a CVT and claim 300km range. The design is a little too widgety for my taste, overall, but I really like that taillight. They have not shipped yet and are not advertising a price.
Zero comes at it from a more off-road background with their Zero S, which is clunkier in style but actually exists here and now; for $14k you get a bike with ~100 mile range and an 88 mph top speed.
Brammo seems to be stuck in development hell; their web site has been offering pre-orders for the Enertia Plus and Empulse models for over a year, but they are out of stock of everything but the older Enertia, in green. If the Empulse ever ships it will be a nice, fast, 100 mph sportbike costing about $14k.
Aaand if you want a motorcycle that has all the stylistic cues of a 1980s flashlight, check out the Boxx: http://www.boxxcorp.com/brochure/boxx
Comment by Adam — January 31, 2012 @ 10:04 am
Holy crap. I can’t decide whether that’s awesome or terrible. It looks alien, or like it’s trying to be ugly on purpose, but the design has a certain logic. The classic motorcycle design of the ’60s and ’70s is basically an engine with a beefed-up bicycle frame wrapped around it; this thing is basically a battery box with just enough widgets added to make it rideable.
Comment by Mars Saxman — January 31, 2012 @ 10:29 am
I’m going to go with terrible. It’s just like they didn’t even try for an appealing design – or maybe they did and their designer is soft in the head. I cannot get the impression of a giant flashlight from the eighties out of my head when looking at that thing. It’s like the complete opposite of the organic and appealing motorcycles that exist today.
Comment by Adam — February 1, 2012 @ 10:12 am
The ShocKing is the most stylish electric bike I’ve seen so far. Not sure it would fly as a commercial product but I love the way it reimagines the classic chopper as an electric machine. The name is practically un-googleable, though…
Comment by Mars Saxman — February 1, 2012 @ 11:52 am