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[TheRan]

So a new model from Indian manufacturer Ultraviolette will be coming to the UK and it looks quite promising, price to specs wise. For £8.5k, or £9.4k after June, you get 10.3kW/h and 40hp with a 5 year/62k mile warranty on the battery and drivetrain (I assume that means the motor, possibly the controller, which is a nice upgrade over Zero) and 3 years/18.6k miles on the rest of the bike (so again besting Zero's 2 years). There are of course the concerns of it being from a manufacturer half way around the world with no prior experience in this country, but it's few an established dealer that does have the experience.



https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-bikes/2025/april/ultraviolette-f77-mach-2/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1745324188

[princec]

All right ... now those are specs I could get behind. At a reasonable price too.

Cas

[TheRan]

Looks pretty nice too in my opinion. When a 7.2 FXE is £3k+ more you've gotta wonder what Zero's doing.

[princec]

Paying Muricans and being tarriffed to fuck that's what

Cas

[Stonewolf]

Given the battery size I expect that range figure is for urban riding and then it takes 2.5 hours to recharge which presumably isn't gonna be DC.

I guess it's alright for running errands around town and pretending to be cool at Starbucks.

[princec]

Sounds like standard 2kW 3-pin plug charging. Range is of course exactly twice what you will actually get IRL, which aligns with every other manufacturer's range claims.

Cas

[Richard230]

But will any U.S. dealers agree to sell the bike, considering how many shops seem to be dropping their electric motorcycle franchises lately?

[princec]

What the US does is increasingly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, as they slowly retreat into isolationism, dribbling in a forgotten cave on the other side of the world.

Cas

[Grauteufel]

Ouch princec, thats bitey.

But he's not wrong in that on a global scale, the US is utterly insignificant in terms of motorcycle sales and development. There's 500-600k annual sales in the US, global sales are over 60 million, meaning the wealthiest country in the world is less than 1% of sales. I believe because of US EPA noise restrictions, they don't even bother developing full power versions for you, they accept the neutured restrictions and move on.

What I wish is that there was more electric bikes in the middle of the market, it currently seems as if there are cheap city bikes, and then super $$$ super bikes. I would love a $20k aud 400-750cc equivalent for the missus. The electric bikes tend to fall in the city commuter space, and just not safe for the occaisional 110km/h roads we have, with ranges on the higher speed 80-100km/h roads falling to 50-80km, or the top end Zeros/energicas that cost more than a well specced car here (ie $40-60k). This is admittedly at the higher end of that commuter space i mentioned, so a step in the right direction

[princec]

If we're honest, the Zero gen3 bikes are ~£10k bikes being sold at £20k....

Cas

[Specter]

ooh sounds like someone is butthurt because the murican welfare check just ended.
Time will tell though once all the moochers have to start paying their own ways for a change.

The entire motorcycle industry is kind of in a slump, electric overall really being hit.

what im seeing around here is not so much people wanting electric scooters to say but more leaning  towards like electric bikes / bicycle type rides.  Electric cars are taking a hit too.  many reasons for that, main reason, charging ability seems to be the reason. and we all must admit, the infrastructure simply is not there and honestly thats going to be a trillion dollar multi decade boondoggle to upgrade the entire grid really at this point.  until there is a breakthru that can cut several k off the price / and or greatly extend the range and shorten charge times,  i don't see it really exploding, no matter what the rest of the economy does.

the only thing that might be a disruptor to this is if they actually get fully autonomous driving going.  being able to just sit back and let my car take me home, will be a huge seller to many.

aaron

[princec]

I'm not at all sure autonomous driving is at all that interests us over here in Europe and especially not the UK. Our roads are all tiny and very wiggly, our towns, villages and cities are even crazier, and most of all, we really like driving, just for fun. (As a whole) Which is why Harley hasn't exactly set the world alight over here, where we call them "Hardly Ablesons".

Cas

[Richard230]

In California EVs, and maybe even electric motorcycles, could become a lot more popular to own next year. Two more of our few (that haven't already closed) gasoline and diesel refineries are shutting down next year. That will cut California's very limited, fuel production by 20%. This is predicted to increase our already very high gasoline prices much higher, because we use a special blend of gasoline not available anywhere else. And then when one or two of the remaining refineries needs to shut down for maintenance or to repair fire damage, fuel prices will really skyrocket. When that happens, expect anything not powered by gasoline or diesel to become suddenly very popular. Maybe even expensive Zero motorcycles. 

[Stonewolf]

What I wish is that there was more electric bikes in the middle of the market, it currently seems as if there are cheap city bikes, and then super $$$ super bikes. I would love a $20k aud 400-750cc equivalent for the missus. The electric bikes tend to fall in the city commuter space, and just not safe for the occaisional 110km/h roads we have, with ranges on the higher speed 80-100km/h roads falling to 50-80km, or the top end Zeros/energicas that cost more than a well specced car here (ie $40-60k). This is admittedly at the higher end of that commuter space i mentioned, so a step in the right direction

There's a technological horseshoe unfortunately.

If you wanna make an A1 bike there's space to do it, you can get hyper efficient with hub motors sans most of the downsides, a lot of your utility is going to be urban where the weight matters more for power consumption and for a bike that's not gonna be used much above 100kmh (62mph) you can get away with a smaller battery.

If you wanna make a hyper-bike go nuts, set your requirements, make it as heavy as it needs to be to hit them. That's Energica's special sauce and it works.

BUT if you wanna make a midpower you run into a brick wall because aerodynamics means that weight barely matters and speed in normal use is king. In the real world, on a twisty public road, a midpower does the same speed as a hyperbike, they're all doing nominally 100-140 kmh. Since aero is the biggest part of your power consumption and a midpower has basicly the same aero as a hyperbike and aero is determined by speed ... they both need the same battery capacity.

So for production efficiency you're gonna literally use the same battery, and given how much of the bike is the battery you're gonna use the same frame and ... etc and now you essentially have the same bike with a software flag set.

That's why there aren't any midpower bikes that get decent range and you can see everyone who tries to make one falling into the same trap, especially the legacies who are laser focused on weight because weight has been *the* big target for ICE bikes for decades now.

I would like someone to figure this out because I think we need some cheap, easy thrill bikes that fill that gap between itty bitty bikes and big, expensive lairy ones. Physics however disagrees.

[Stonewolf]

Sounds like standard 2kW 3-pin plug charging. Range is of course exactly twice what you will actually get IRL, which aligns with every other manufacturer's range claims.

Cas

Actually I think it probably will get close to the quoted figure as long as you stick to urban streets at 50kmh or less, the same as Energica's quote 400kmh for urban riding and you can get pretty close to that.