Kymco Patents Production RevoNEX Electric

© Provided by Cycle World   Kymco’s six-speed RevoNEX electric will probably look a lot like this when it hits showrooms next year. | Photo: Kymco |

By Ben Purvis, Cycle World

When Kymco revealed the RevoNEX concept at last year’s EICMA show in Milan, the firm promised that a production version would be on sale in 2021. Now the firm has filed styling patents showing design tweaks for the showroom version of the bike.

The RevoNEX is one of the most promising of the latest crop of electric bike concepts, and if these new images are as representative as they appear, then it’s set to reach showrooms looking almost identical to the 2019 concept. There are some changes however.

© Provided by Cycle World   With a six-speed transmission and traditional gear shifter, the RevoNEX is meant to appeal to ICE-machine-bred riders.

An Electric Bike For Traditionalists

Before we get into the latest design tweaks, let’s recap what the RevoNEX is and why it’s got something extra to offer when compared to other electric motorcycles. It’s the first serious attempt at an electric from Taiwanese giant Kymco, and its unique selling point is that it aims to attract riders bred on gasoline-powered bikes, rather than try to capitalize on its futuristic power source like other battery-powered machines.

That’s a smart move. Sure, there may be a handful of early adopters who want a “revolutionary” electric machine that deletes all traces of motorcycling heritage, but there’s a vast reservoir of existing riders who are put off by the idea of a silent, twist-and-go machine. So where other companies use the torque of electric motors to create single-gear, clutchless bikes that are simple to ride, Kymco’s idea is to keep all the involvement of a gas bike, just with a different source of power. As such, the RevoNEX has a six-speed transmission, with a conventional foot-operated shift, a bar-mounted clutch lever, and separate front and rear brakes—just like a normal motorcycle.

© Provided by Cycle World   From the looks of it, the production version will receive different brake calipers, seven-spoke wheels, and a pillion cover.

Versatility And Familiarity

Because it’s electric, you can stick it into second gear at standstill and, without touching the clutch or shifter, accelerate to highway speeds. But you don’t have to; if you’d rather gun the motor, slot it into first, and slip the clutch to regulate torque as you pull away, that’s fine too.

The use of a multispeed transmission also leads to Kymco’s other main novelty: a noise-making system that amplifies and modifies the sound of the electric motor itself to give the rider an audible indication of revs. Again, familiarity is key; we’re all used to using our ears to judge when to change gears and to monitor the load on an engine, so why throw all that ingrained knowledge away just because we’re switching to electric power?

Design Changes For Production

Combining a manual gearshift with the sledgehammer punch of an electric motor potentially releases a lot of stress on the RevoNEX’s final drive, so the firm has opted for a chain rather than a belt to transmit power to the rear wheel. But that introduces its own issues, which appear to be addressed in the new patent.

Where the concept bike’s chain was exposed, the new designs show an enveloping chain guard bolted to the swingarm. It might look a little strange, but chances are the design is intended to muffle the noise a chain final drive makes. It’s not something that’s normally noticeable on an ICE bike, with exhaust and intake noises to hide it, but on a near-silent electric bike, a chain drive can be surprisingly loud.

© Kymco   From the front, standard cues like bar-mounted control levers offer a level of familiarity to gas-biased, traditional riders.

Higher up, the new patents show a pillion seat cover that wasn’t present on the concept version, giving the illusion of a single-seat tail unit, while smaller design tweaks can also be seen on the sidestand and rear suspension, which has a different shock and modified rising-rate linkage. At the front, the Brembo brakes of the concept bike are replaced with a different caliper design and the master cylinder is also changed, while the cooling air intake behind the front wheel is redesigned with a simplified, mesh-covered hole rather than the slatted opening of the show bike. Finally, the wheels have been changed from five-spoke to seven-spoke designs.

On Sale In 2021

At the show bike’s unveiling last year, Kymco confirmed plans to have a production version in dealers by 2021. Key questions including the bike’s power, weight, and range remain unanswered, but in terms of performance the RevoNEX is claimed to have a top speed of around 127 mph—fractionally ahead of the 124 mph that Zero’s SR/F can manage—and to achieve the 0–62 mph dash in 3.9 seconds. Zero to flat-out is claimed to take just 11.8 seconds. Those numbers suggest the bike’s power and torque figures will be close to the Zero SR/F’s 110 hp and 140 pound-feet performance numbers, provided the two are also comparable in terms of weight (the Zero weighs 485 pounds).

© Provided by Cycle World   There’s no word on price or range, but the RevoNex is scheduled to be in dealerships by 2021.

The final and most decisive variable is price. So far there’s no indication as to where Kymco will position the RevoNEX, but if the firm can flex its low-cost manufacturing muscle and undercut its rivals in the mainstream electric motorcycle market, it stands a real chance of getting a head start in terms of sales.

See more at: Cycle World