Review: 0-100km in 5.5 seconds on Savic’s new electric cafe racer
The nation’s first full-sized electric motorcycle is a 300kg monster that costs $20,000, can go from 0 to 80km/h in about four seconds and two buyers will take delivery within weeks.
The nation’s first full-sized electric motorcycle is a 300kg monster of machine that can get from 0 to 80km/h in just over four seconds.
The fully automatic bike, which has just three modes – forward, neutral and reverse – is set to be launched next month as the venture capital-backed start-up behind it opens a Series A raise in search of $10m in working capital.
Ahead of the launch, The Australian test rode a prototype of Savic Motorcycles’s Delta model, a slightly heavier and slower version of the bike which retails for $19,990. A second model known as the Alpha is available for $26,990.
The motorbike drew quite the crowd at Pie in the Sky, a bakery along the Pacific Highway about 43km from the Sydney CBD, which is known as a biker hangout and meet-up spot.
Unlike some electric motorcycles, the C-series is a good looking machine, largely modelled off cafe racers, with the rider positioned in a forward-leaning position and clinging to clip-on handlebars.
At 300kg, it wasn’t the easiest to manoeuvre around corners at slow speeds or when turning around. However, the bike did not feel as heavy as a standard 300kg road bike.
The prototype is said to get to 100km/h in about 5.5 seconds and some testing by The Australian found the bike to get to 80km/h uphill in a little over four seconds.
The finished product is said to be a lot faster, reaching 100km/h in 4.5 seconds, and the Alpha model faster again at 3.5 seconds.
As all electric models go, the bike takes some getting used to without a gear lever or clutch.
Being electric, the motorcycle was largely silent, which is rather pleasant, and allows the rider to take in more of their surroundings.
Between the Alpha and the Delta, both bikes are identical in appearance. Savic Motorcycles chief executive Dennis Savic said the Delta has smaller motor internals and a smaller battery pack which effectively limited the power.
Savic is the second Australian-made electric motorcycle to enter the market after FONZ, which produces a small electric motorcycle which looks similar to a moped starting from $8990.
Other competitors include Chinese brand SUPER SOCO which offer two models ranging from $5490 to $8290.
The C-series has a range of 150km on the Delta and 200km on the Alpha model.
Mr Savic said this was a modest estimate based on combined highway and CBD use, and that both bikes bike could reach up 250km in CBD environments alone.
Electric bikes, in comparison to internal combustion engines, are more efficient at lower speeds than on highways.
The first allotment of bikes will include seven fully-built models, two of which are reserved for customers, three of which will be used for marketing and two will be reserved for engineering purposes.
Mr Savic said the brand had 240 bikes on pre-order which represented around $8m in revenue. The Series A capital raise — Savic is looking to raise $10m of $20m pre-money — will be the working capital the business needs to ramp up production.
Current capacity is expected to see between 70 to 100 bikes built this year and between 250 to 350 in 2024.
The business raised a pre-seed in 2020 and a seed round the following year, which brought in a total of $2.4m led by alternative investment venture capital fund Artesian.
The start-up also received a $657,000 Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre grant from the federal government.
There was little to fault on the prototype The Australian rode except the bike’s LCD screen. For most of the ride it was impossible to monitor speed on the screen due to the glare. Mr Savic said a glare-free LCD would come with the finished bikes.
On the tech front, the brand is still working out whether to charge users a subscription fee for access to data insights and a predictive maintenance algorithm.
The bike has a total 180 data points per second which give insights into how the bike is performing as well as its steering ability.
The bike will also be able to display maps via a connection with a user’s phone.
Each bike will arrive with its own sim card which will allow for over-the-air updates. It’s understood a single network provider will be used.
One of the more interesting features is the keyless entry which works over bluetooth. When a user’s phone has run out of battery it can be overridden with a code.
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