We Could See The First Royal Enfield e-Bike Prototype This Year
Modified On Apr 11, 2023 01:06 PM By Ishan Lee for Royal Enfield Flying Flea C6
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Royal Enfield to produce e-Bikes from new production facility
Yes, Royal Enfield is working on EVs, and no, it is in no rush to roll out its first electric offering without getting it right. In a bid to do so it has acquired a new 60 acre land for a new plant in Cheyyar, near Chennai.
Initially, this plant will serve as a third facility for its current line of products and is reported to be ready by 2025. It will be designed in a manner where it can smoothly transition to producing just EVs when the demand goes up. That’s because the first EV from Royal Enfield will be rolled out from its existing Vallam Vadagal plant where a dedicated line has been set for Royal Enfield’s in-house EV platform, codenamed ‘L1A’. Apart from this, Royal Enfield will also have another platform, a product developed using the expertise of Stark Motorcycle, a Spanish EV start-up it recently acquired.
The in-house platform is likely to debut between 2024-2025. In fact, Royal Enfield reportedly plans to unveil the prototype this year, so expect the production version of the electric bike to be launched sometime in 2024. By the time its second product with Stark Motorcycles is ready, the Cheyyar plant should be up and running.
We do not expect Royal Enfield's first EV to be a high performance e-motorcycle like the Ultraviolette F77, but something more balanced between range, performance and aesthetics. The second one with Stark Motorcycles, however, could shock us all.