ROYAL Enfield has bought a 10 percent stake in off-road motorcycle maker Stark Varg, with the Indian brand investing €50m Euros in the motocross bike maker.
The move is widely believed to be a vehicle to help speed along Royal Enfield’s development of its own electric motorcycles and will see the two partner for ‘collaborative research and development’ of road-going electric bikes.
Stark Varg first appeared on the scene at the end of 2021, with their first offering, a 450cc equivalent 80hp motocross bike, making headlines around the world. Not only did it represent one of the first, purpose-built battery-powered motocross bikes, but with nearly 1,000Nm of torque on offer, 6-hours of runtime, and one-to-two-hour recharge times, it was useable too.
Royal Enfield, like every motorcycle manufacturer, has one eye on the future of personal mobilisation. And like pretty much all motorbike makers, electric power features heavily in this plan. The investment in Stark should give Enfield a significant leg up in terms of understanding battery and controller technology, knowledge it can now pour into its own electric prototypes.
Speaking about the move, Royal Enfield boss, Siddhartha Lal said:
“Leisure motorcycles do not easily lend themselves to EV technology at this stage, due to challenges like the battery range, packaging, weight, and cost…Stark Future has been able to understand and harness the potential of EV technology by dramatically outperforming ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) offerings, without compromising on range, weight, and cost.”
