The choice of electric motorcycles is growing the world over but in India we don’t have many. And considering situations like the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the wait will get longer. Until then, we can draw some inspiration from the likes of the Photon – an all-electric Royal Enfield Bullet.
The Bullet is powered by a Newtown-based Electric Classic Cars battery. As the name suggests, Electric Classic Cars converts four-wheelers into all-electric ones – from Porsches to Maseratis. For a change, they’ve done a bike. Royal Enfield was also ready to find out what were the possibilities so they sent over a brand new Bullet.It makes about 15.6 bhp. Electric Classic Cars have revealed a torque figure, but a similar 14Kw hub motor claims ‘more than 300Nm.’ Range is claimed at 128 km and it’ll do a top speed of 112 km/h.
The frame, suspension, geometry and weight have hardly been changed from the standard, so the Photon should handle much like the original – minus the sound and vibrations. It gets a 280mm disc at the front and a 240mm unit at the rear. (Photo: Peter Henshaw)
The Photon is priced at £20,000 (approximately Rs 18.9 lakh). Yes, that is steep but the Electric Classic Cars are a small company that do one-off conversions. Considering a full-fledged electric motorcycle like the Harley-Davidson LiveWire costs about £30,000 (approximately Rs 28.4 lakh), it may be alright for someone with big pockets. To say the least, the Photon does look good. Royal Enfield did say last year that they would build a production electric motorcycle soon. Are we looking at an early prototype with the Photon? Time will tell.
