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Indian Working on an Electric Motorcycle?

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Polaris Industries says it is working on a new electric motorcycle, to replace the now discontinued Victory Empulse TT model that was scrapped when the Minnesota company closed the doors to the Victory brand earlier this year.

According to a report from Reuters, the new electric motorcycle will be released under the Indian Motorcycle brand name, and will be focused towards riders who ride for pleasure, rather than those who commute or do long-distance trips.

The report says that Polaris is targeting a 120 to 140 mile range – almost double of what was available from the Empulse TT – from this new electric motorcycle model, when ridden at an aggressive pace.

“The characteristics of the new powertrain are going to be more applicable to be able to ride a bike for pleasure and in twisties, and kind of how you would use today a pleasure bikes,” said Steve Menneto, Polaris President of Motorcycles, while speaking to Reuters.

The Indian electric bike is seemingly still in its early days of development, with the report indicating that the model is still four to five years away from production.

Undoubtedly, Polaris is hoping that the energy density for lithium based batteries will evolve by that time period, and thus be able to meet such lofty range goals.

Of course by that point in time, the current crop of electric vehicle players will have also updated their products to have similar range claims.

Still, it should be interesting to have another OEM in the electric mix, especially if it means Indian will take on Harley-Davidson’s Livewire project, head-on.

Source: Reuters

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