Regardless of where you stand on the perceived ‘electric revolution’, it goes without saying that there will be a plenty more motorcycles supping from the charging cable in the next few years than there are right now.
As for where you’ll find them at any point in time is more open to speculation but one manufacturer that is clearly knows exactly where it is heading is Royal Enfield, which has confirmed it is working on an electric motorcycle for the masses.
Though a slowdown in its native Indian market has stung Royal Enfield’s bottom line recently, looking beyond its core home fortunes shows there is much to for it to be positive about with sales in overseas market rising rapidly through its offerings of honest, good value motoring at a time when many rivals are moving towards more premium, tech-laden (ie. expensive) models.
With this in mind, an electric Royal Enfield holds plenty of interest in that it could pave a cheaper route towards electric motorcycle ownership.
Royal Enfield has hinted it’s been looking at electric for some time and it’s perhaps no surprise given increasingly tight emissions regulations in India, one that has given rise to a number of local start-ups looking to get the jump on the mainstream manufacturers.
As such, Royal Enfield CEO Vinod Dasari has now confirmed it is formulating a plan for an electric model, though admits it is unsure which model type it’ll be.
“Electric is something we have been thinking about for quite some time,” he told Moneycontrol. “We are trying to figure out exactly which segment is the right segment for us. Electric is something we take very seriously.”
For now we can only surmise that this could turn out to be something as simple as an electric commuter bike that would hold appeal in India or something more extravagant with overseas appeal, but given the expense that would go behind developing such a powertrain, it’s reasonable to assume there will be more than one on the way… and they’ll will get here before many of its rivals too.
