Royal Enfield’s largest announcement at EICMA 2024 – the Milan Motorbike Present – was undoubtedly the drop of its new electrical motorbike, the Flying Flea C6 and S6.
“Flying Flea” turned out to be the identify of not simply the brand new bike however the whole electrical sub-brand launched by Royal Enfield, designed to embody a variety of sunshine to middleweight city electrical bikes.
The primary two fashions, the classicly-styled Flying Flea C6 and scrambler-styled Flying Flea S6, set the route for the model whereas positioning the kind of rider and the kind of journey that Royal Enfield has envisioned for its electrical future.
One have a look at the brand new bike exhibits that it matches with Royal Enfield’s design heritage, borrowing a number of design cues and mixing them with the fashionable alternatives afforded by electrical motorbike design work free of the standard bounds of standard frames and engines.
On the identical time, a nod to historical past within the design mimics a number of now vestigial options, together with an electrical motor case that appears like a crankcase and bodywork that mimics a gas tank.
We are able to see the plain inspiration from the unique Royal Enfield Flying Flea motorbike of the Forties, famously airdropped into WWII alongside paratroopers to offer light-weight and speedy battlefield mobility. From the girder fork to the vintage-style saddle, it’s a slick-looking journey. However appearances, nevertheless eye-catching, can solely take Royal Enfield to this point. For the brand new Flying Flea to change into a industrial success, it must be backed up by the proper specs on the proper value.
And the workforce at Royal Enfield has a solution for that too. They only aren’t telling us but.
Whereas the revealing was huge on pomp and highlighted the model’s give attention to bringing accessibility to the commuter electrical motorbike market, the corporate isn’t fairly able to spill the small print on specifics. Almost the whole thing of the bike’s spec sheet stays shrouded in thriller. The corporate doesn’t count on the bike to go on sale till Q1 2026, so we’ve acquired a while to get there.
Nonetheless, we are able to nonetheless glean lots from seems to be alone. The battery itself is somewhat small, bodily, which means it’s unlikely to supply a really lengthy vary on a single cost. The slim battery case doubtless implies a single row of cylindrical battery cells, limiting its whole capability. Maybe two rows of cells might match, nevertheless it’d be a good squeeze. Both method you slice it, there’s simply not a ton of area in between your knees for batteries. And that’s okay, so long as Royal Enfield has positioned the bike correctly for its function. The corporate has repeatedly referred to the Flying Flea C6’s function as “metropolis+”, which means it’s designed primarily for city commuting, with occasional excursions additional out and onto sooner roads.
This isn’t going to be a long-range freeway commuter, however it would doubtless be ample for hopping on native highways for an exit or two. That’s peak commuter bike, proper there.
Secondly, the motor isn’t all that giant both. Bodily dimension isn’t the one indication of energy in an electrical motor, nevertheless it’s normally corollary. This isn’t going to be laying down LiveWire-like 0-60 mph instances of three.0 seconds, which once more, isn’t one thing a commuter bike is supposed to do. If I had been a betting man, I’d put the battery capability at between 4-5 kWh and the height motor energy at beneath 15 kW (20 hp). I think about the battery might be barely smaller than most of us would need, however the energy stage is probably going completely enough for commuter-level necessities. With small batteries comes restricted peak energy, that’s simply physics.
To place it merely, the specs are prone to be effective, however not breathtaking. And that’s okay. Actually, it’s what the market wants proper now.
We’ve all watched as high-performance electrical motorbike firms have struggled, even gone bankrupt, attempting to chase excessive pace and lengthy vary. That pursuit of efficiency is usually an almost unimaginable balancing act with out seeing the worth skyrocket. The present dimension and expense of batteries merely make it almost unimaginable to shoehorn sufficient of them right into a motorcycle-sized package deal and have one thing that appears good, not to mention stays reasonably priced.
So as a substitute of racing for the highest, Royal Enfield has chosen the trail much less traveled lately: comfortably nestling into the wise part of the market. With modest energy and vary figures comes modest pricing, and that’s Royal Enfield’s key to success. The corporate has lengthy prided itself on constructing bikes which are accessible. And as many different firms have seen their gross sales stagnate or shrink, Royal Enfield has continued to develop in the previous few years, reaching almost 1,000,000 models offered final 12 months alone.
That mixture of an eye fixed for design blended with wise accessibility hasn’t simply stored Royal Enfield afloat; it has helped the corporate prosper. And it simply so occurs that that’s precisely what the electrical motorbike market wants proper now.
Happily – or extra doubtless by design – this comes at a time when Royal Enfield is able to take the chance. In candid discussions we had all through the launch, it was underscored a number of instances that Royal Enfield isn’t betting the farm on this. The corporate waited till they thought the time was proper, but when the Flying Flea isn’t a direct industrial success, we had been assured that it wouldn’t drag the corporate down. That doesn’t imply the Royal Enfield workforce isn’t anticipating success, however solely that they’re not watching the world go by by way of rose-colored driving goggles both.
How a lot will the Flying Flea electrical motorbike price?
That is the massive query. Greater than “how briskly?” and greater than “how far?”, individuals wish to know the way a lot the Flying Flea C6 and S6 will price.
And identical to the efficiency specs, Royal Enfield isn’t prepared to inform us. Relying on who I requested, they both know and aren’t saying but, or they don’t even realize it themselves.
However one factor is for certain, each member of Royal Enfield I questioned appeared to grasp that pricing was going to be the crucial issue right here. They will see which machines have succeed and which have failed over the previous few years. Individuals went gangbusters over a $5,000 Metacycle (even when that bike proved too good to be true) and laughed in Can-Am’s face at their $14,000 commuter electrical bikes.
If I needed to guess, I can see Royal Enfield bringing the Flying Flea to market at between US $6,500 to $8,000. Discussions with leaders at Royal Enfield appeared to indicate that the corporate is concentrating on a number of battery capacities and energy ranges to create varied choices for riders, which means the entry-level mannequin might be fairly attractively priced, even when it should surrender some vary and prime finish to get there.
Finally, we don’t have a lot substance to guage the Flying Flea on but. The bike seems to be nice, not less than on this journalist’s opinion. However as soon as we are able to be taught what’s happening beneath the hood and what number of paychecks it would set us again, we are able to get a greater thought of how properly Royal Enfield can do on its first electrical shot.
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