It's pretty and electric: two things that don't usually go together.
Electric motorcycles are taking a little time to come into their own.
Motorcycle design has always been strictly dictated by their power
train, which means finding a spot for a gas tank, routing the
appropriate fueling and breathing capacity, and transferring power to
the rear wheel from a crankshaft. What happens when designers don’t have
to account for all of that mechanical accoutrement, though?
This innovative electric motorcycle from French company Newron is among the first to break the traditional motorcycle design trend.
The first thing you’ll notice is that quite a lot of it is made out of
wood. That alone is a radical departure from typical motorcycle design,
but one that will not catch on where there is any kind of weather. The
second thing you’ll notice is that pillar of wood right at the front of
the seat. Stop too hard and that thing will be all up in your business,
and not in a good way.
A motorcycle by definition needs two wheels
in the same plane and a seat somewhere in the middle. Electric motors
are getting more powerful, and batteries are gaining capacity; all of
this tech is likewise getting smaller. Motorcycles powered by
electricity don’t need gas tanks, and their flow of electrons are
neither aided nor hindered by gravity. All of this means that motorcycle
design is about to take a hard turn away from what we all know as the
classic “motorcycle” look. We’re at the very forefront of electric
vehicle design, and while right now we see a lot of electric motorcycles
that look just like their gasoline-fueled counterparts, mark my words:
we’re going to see a whole lot more unusual designs. The constraints created by an internal combustion engine are evaporating.
Newron’s
bike is quite a bit different from early, boxy electric motorcycle
designs and not just because pieces of it are wooden. The battery
itself, instead of being hidden, is adorned with subtle LED lighting and
small ports that make the whole thing reminiscent of a jet engine.
Everywhere else, the bike has incredibly clean lines and a swooping
architecture that would make a fan of mid-century modern design
absolutely swoon.
Newron is partnering with French firms Dassault
Systems and Advans to build the bikes. There will only be twelve of them
produced and offered for sale, and those will be available, briefly,
next year. There’s no word on the price, but the look of the thing
screams “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” Power, capacity,
charge times are all a big mystery at the moment. That said, It’s awful
pretty, isn’t it?
