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Polaris Trademarks “Victory Charger” – An Electric Cruiser?

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Trademark applications with the USPTO show that Polaris has registered “Victory Charger” as a mark to be used with “electric motorcycles and structural parts therefor.”

The application is a strong hint that we could see an electric cruiser from the Victory brand, which is owned by Polaris, in the coming future.

The news is especially timely, as Polaris just acquired Brammo’s electric motorcycle business, and plans on building electric motorcycles at the company’s facilities in Spirit Lake, IA.

As if there wasn’t already enough fuel for the fire, on a product roadmap for investors, Brammo listed an “eCruiser” as a possible future model — a model that could easily be repurposed for the progressive Victory cruiser brand.

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Racing

Team Mugen Confirms 2015 IOMTT Entry with Shinden Yon

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A bit of a formality, since rider John McGuinness already spilled the beans in December last year, but Team Mugen has confirmed its entry into the 2015 Isle of Man TT.

Mugen will have a new bike at the contest, named the Shinden Yon, “Yon” being “four” in Japanese, and the bike being the company’s fourth TT racer — like its lap times, Mugen’s engineers are very consitent with their naming conventions.

Little is known about the Shinden Yon, and Mugen is saying only that the machine is “newly developed to improve over last year’s model.”

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News

Polaris Acquires Electric Motorcycle Business from Brammo

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Polaris Industries has acquired the electric motorcycle business from Brammo, Inc. Polaris is also acting as a leading investor in the recapitalization of Brammo, which will enable Brammo to focus exclusively on the design, development, and integration of electric vehicle powertrains.

This means that Polaris will takeover building electric motorcycles at its Spirit Lake, IA production facility, and that Brammo will continue developing EV powertrains for Polaris and other OEM partners. According to its press release, Polaris will start production of electric motorcycles in the second half of 2015.

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News

Harley-Davidson Continues Search for EV Workers

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Think the Harley-Davidson LiveWire project was just a stunt for shareholders? No one can say for certain, of course, but the Bar & Shield brand is continuing its search for experts in electric vehicle production…which we doubt anyone would have believed 10 years ago.

Right now Harley-Davidson has two positions posted on its career portal — a Staff Technical Engineer and a Advanced Manufacturing Project Engineer — both of which refer to an EV/Electrical project at Harley-Davidson.

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News

Harley-Davidson LiveWire to Cost $50,000? Not So Fast

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News is going around the internet that Harley-Davidson COO Matt Levatich has pegged the Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric cruiser at costing roughly $50,000. The price tag comes from a piece by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which was in attendance at this year’s Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council’s yearly meeting.

While no direct quote is given by the Journal Sentinel, Levatich is paraphrased and inferred to be saying that the LiveWire would go about half the range that consumers desired, at a price tag double what they were willing to pay — $50,000.

Many sites have latched onto that $50,000 price announcement, but Harley-Davidson quickly corrected the Journal Sentinel, saying that no personnel at Harley-Davidson has put a potential price on the LiveWire, if it were to go into mass production.

Though a bit of a SNAFU, a quick back-of-the-envelope analysis of that number should have revealed the inaccuracy of that figure.

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Bikes

Energica Eva – Electrifyingly Naked

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Loyal readers will remember that we already tipped you off to the folks at Energica debuting at EIMCA a naked version of the Energica Ego electric superbike, and here is your first glimpse at what the Italians are calling the Energica Eva.

The Eva will share the same 136hp / 143 lbs•ft PMAC motor and 11.7 kWh battery pack as the Ego, though with a more upright and relaxed seating position.

As can be seen, the Eva is without fairings and sports a tall handlebar setup. The Ego’s projector headlights remain, though perhaps in a more palatable housing than on the Ego.

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Bikes

2015 Alta RedShift SM — A SuMo Wrestler with Lights

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Like its off-roading counterpart, the Alta RedShift SM is built around the most powerful motor on the market, per pound (40hp coming from an 11 lbs motor), which is a proprietary design by Alta.

Building around that a proper supermoto package, complete with WP suspension and Brembo brakes, the Alta Motors crew hopes that it has built a supermoto that will blow away the competition on the track, whether it be another electric sumo, or a lites-class gas-powered machine.

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Bikes

2015 Alta RedShift MX – Lites, Camera, Action

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The now newly named Alta Motors is ready to announce its production machines for the 2015 model year, and first up is the company’s off-road model: the Alta RedShift MX. Designed to take on the toughest gas-powered lites-class motocross bikes on the track (250cc four-strokes), the RedShift MX boasts some impressive electric figures as well.

With 40hp on tap, from only 11 pounds of motor, the RedShift platform has the most powerful motor per pound, anywhere. Add that to the fact that Alta says the RedShift MX tips the scales at 251 lbs, though feels lighter once it’s underway — a known benefit of electric motorcycles.

Revving to 13,750 rpm from Alta’s proprietary motor, the RedShift MX is good for 2 hours of “recreational” riding. For riders that want to keep going longer, Alta has designed the battery pack to be swappable, in about 10-15 minutes with two sets of hands working. This also means that future battery pack upgrades will be available as new battery tech comes to market as well.

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News

BRD Motorcycles Is Now Alta Motors

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We generally try to avoid reprinting the press releases of companies. Call it spin control, call it journalistic integrity, call it an over-fascination in hearing ourselves type — it just isn’t something we’re keen to do.

Every now and then though, a company’s press release really is the most succinct and well-worded form of the information. As is the case with BRD Motorcycles, which is now known as Alta Motors.

We could wax on about the various branding strategies at work here, the importance of a company’s name, and how BRD’s recent $4.5 million Series A funding is surely to blame for all this…but instead, Alta Motors release just a basic honest answer to it all. Read it after the jump, and yes…the above image was included in the press release.

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News

Report: KTM Abandons Electric Scooter Project

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KTM seems to have a tumultuous relationship when it comes to electric vehicles. The Austrian company was the first OEM to announce an electric product, back in 2011.

Then in 2013, KTM CEO Stefan Pierer announced that the timing wasn’t right for electrics…and then promptly debuted the company’s E-Speed electric scooter, several days later.

KTM has since revamped its electric dirt bike program, showing three new Freeride E models at EICMA (MX, Enduro, and Supermoto).

So maybe then it’s without surprise that word is going around that KTM is canning its E-Speed project, ahead of its expected 2015 debut.

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