General Motors Motorcycle Patents Published
The American car maker General Motors has filed some interesting patents showing that it's working on an EV motorcycle project
General Motors (GM) may be best known for building gas-guzzling muscle cars like the Camaro and Corvette, but it also has an eye on the future, as these electric motorcycle patents show.
The patents were first filed in 2023, although only just been published on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and they show a scrambler or off-road motorcycle, featuring a large battery pack and semi-knobbly tyres.
The patents also show the machine from the front, and with a headlight clearly in view, it's believed the machine could, should it go into production, become a future road-legal machine from General Motors. Powering the bike is a hub-mounted motor, while the chassis utilises cartridge forks and a disc brake at the front end of the bike. The profile of the machine is super-slim, and with a large and almost perfectly flat seat, it’s reminiscent of similar machines offered by brands like Sur-Ron and Talaria.
While the move to make an EV seems like a weird flex for a brand so rooted in the four-wheeled, GM wouldn’t be the only storied car maker to look into the idea. Car brands are increasingly looking to PTWs as a way to diversify their portfolios, be that either as a collaboration with an established bike manufacturer, or as a standalone project. General Motors has also toyed with two-wheelers before, albeit on that occasion for its Hummer EV All-Wheel Drive E-bicycles, which was in itself a re-branded Recon Power Bike. So, a one-time bike maker by proxy GM may be, but the patents revealed this week do at least show the brand is still considering a shift into the sector in a bigger way.
You may also like to read our best electric motorcycle guide.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
