As electric motorcycles proliferate, more manufacturers emerge … targeting different demographics. Arc is based in England, and is planning to manufacture and sell the Vector next year to an affluent customer willing to part with £90,000 (equal to roughly to $115,000).
For that kind of money, Arc is promising high performance, outstanding range and unique engineering. The Vector’s frame has the battery pack built in as a stressed member with the carbon monocoque (like an F1 race car structure). Even the swingarm is carbon fiber.
The electric motor and battery pack produce a claimed 133 horsepower and 109 foot/pounds of torque. The claimed range of the Vector is quite spectacular, between 230 and 387 miles depending on the performance demanded from the machine by the rider.
The Vector isn’t the first bike to feature hub-steering (with Öhlins damping), but it adds to the sophisticated look and, according to Arc, offers genuine performance advantages. An Öhlins shock is featured in the back. The brakes on the concept are Brembo’s new top-end Stylema calipers.
Along with the incredible range, Arc claims the Vector can accelerate from 0-60 in 3 seconds flat on its way to a top speed of 125 mph. The acceleration is undoubtedly aided by the carbon fiber wheels.
For more details, take a look at Arc’s web site.
See more of MD’s great photography:
Some years ago when Brammo first came out with a clean and simple electric motorcycle I thought.. now that looks and sounds interesting, then came the price of around 18 grand.. and that killed that thought. Now with this thing at 135 grand.. this now falls under.. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”.
I’m very sorry, but suppose, that there will be more comments about the bike here, then they will eventually sell.
I don’t think range is really an issue with this thing. 50 miles would be more than enough.
I guess Ducati is going to source it from this company or vice versa…both look very similar.
https://electrek.co/2019/01/19/electric-ducati-motorcycle/
I think it looks great, but I am 68 and not buying any new bikes.
If I was a billionaire I’d have one, along with a hundred other bikes. It’s unique styling would attract a lot of attention, and I don’t agree with anyone who thinks it’s ugly.
But I have to wonder, what’s it like at doing U-turns. There doesn’t appear to be much space for the front wheel to turn.
Where would Sandra sit?
She’d have to stay home.
According to the website, production in summer of 2020, with a limited production run of 399. Also the range is (NEDC) of 436km (270 miles). I didn’t see anything claiming 387 miles, and the NEDC is notoriously optimistic.
Undoubtedly there are 399 people in the world that can afford the bike. It’s hard to imagine them selling out the production run, considering the long wait, high price, questionable range, unusual looks, and average performance specs.
Well, you know Jay Leno is going to buy one, so, that’s only 398 more to sell.
No, I don’t know that. I regularly watch Jay Leno’s Garage, and have seen most of his videos, and I seriously doubt that he would buy one. If the company actually builds the bike, there’s a reasonable chance he would host it on an episode.
I never was a big fan of his comedy, but admire his love of cars and bikes and his support of the industry and hobby.
Once again someone proves that if money is no object you can do anything. I mean I am sure you could build an electric rocket to fly to the moon and back, but that isn’t very useful either; is it?
Carbon fiber is great, but completely impractical on roads covered with rocks. No one that buys this bike is going to be commuting on it, which is kind of the point of electric vehicles, to reduce emissions; which is questionable anyway.
> if money is no object
Like it or not, voters have endorsed “money is no object” at least for some. Applaud now.
Looks like a Geth.
Well Electric bikes are coming. IMO band for the buck is Zero.
Uh, someone at Arc apparently really likes HR Giger.
I know this is a concept bike and I love that it is advancing the electric motorcycle. At what point, however, are designers going to give up on the tail and seat and simply place a peg that is inserted into the riders southern most orifice? I guess at that point, going for a ride has multiple meanings.
I’d rather have a Kawasaki Z400 for under 5K.
+1
Great minds think alike! The $110k difference in price opens up lots of options.
133 hp and tops out at 125 mph? Doesnt add up.
Sure it does. Gearing. They geared the bike for acceleration, not speed.
Imagine hitching 133 horses to a Roman chariot. Top speed wouldn’t be much higher than it was with 1 horse power.
Sounds like a deliberate speed limitation. No reason for a road bike to go any faster.
Yup – it’s speed limited.
Uh, yeah, it wasn’t accidentally chosen. When you decide to save money by not utilizing a multi-ratio gear box, you have to decide; “do I want acceleration or do I want top speed?” It’s always a trade off. Most people that show off want strong acceleration. Top speed is hardly ever explored, especially on an unfared designer bike.
With electrics, it’s more a matter of how many watts of energy do you want to use. High torque and high revs come out of the same motor, it’s just a matter of feeding it power and pulsing the stator poles quickly enough, both of which are easy with available tech.
Most electric race vehicles are direct drive and have both great acceleration and top speed. Range, maybe not as much.
I’ve been directly involved in the development of electric vehicles and drivetrains (if Chevrolet ever releases an all wheel drive, gas turbine powered 1000hp hybrid electric Corvette, that was me…). We have constantly found in testing and studies that a electric vehicle with a multi-ratio transmission will out-accelerate and be generally faster than a single ratio one. This is just all very simple physics.
I don’t doubt that, I’m just pointing out that a multi-speed transmission is far less necessary with the capabilities of brushless electric power than it is with ICE power.
Gearing, or rather the lack thereof. It has a single gear. With a gearbox it could go faster.
It could use some risers, ape hangers. And, feet forward pegs.
But I will settle for standard ergonomics, and higher speed.
I got my old Burgman 650 to go 120mph. For this price it should beat a Porsche.
I see a lot of Tesla’s and for some reason Maserati’s around me. Who knows maybe their all heading to a shop on highway 6 that specializes in exotic cars. There’s plenty of money out there for them. This reminds me of the robot dog that can be found for sale cheap used with a high initial cost and nothing else.
Ok, exotic cars break down all the time and their used prices drop like ice of the Antarctic shelf. But part of the fun of them you can race them across country like you’re in a Burt Reynolds movie. You can do that with an HP4 or an H2 not this. I doubt it will be for collectors. What value will it have in ten years?
Teslas are somewhat attainable, as the least expensive is over $50k and the average price of a light vehicle in the US now is about $35k. What Tesla can be lauded for is proving that EVs can be fun (great acceleration), but the rest of the cars’ construction details are merely average. The admittedly attractive designs can be attributed to a Detroit trained talent, not someone from Silicon Valley.
I agree that it’s as much a movement as a car and that over 1/2 are sold in California yearly. That last fact is all I need to know, given that poor excuse for a state.
I’ve been to California. It’s nice. Not sure what your problem is.
Perhaps his problem is self hate disguised by a comb-over of self love. Anyway, he can think what he wants, I don’t really give a shit.
lol
The cheapest Tesla (Model 3) shown on the website starts at $39,900. You can actually order a cheaper one “off-menu.” I own a 3 and I would say that the construction details are, indeed, average. I mean that in the purest meaning of the word; they’re right inline with the quality of most modern, mass produced premium cars.
You’re a little off in your info. Teslas least expensive is now about $37,500. As far as construction details, you may be thinking of the first few years, or the first few thousand of the Model 3’s, which did have some QC problems with panel alignment etc., now all the latest are coming through in extremely good alignment and QC. They are learning quickly.
I’d be interested in how they got that energy density. If it’s done using non proprietary batteries, like Tesla, then this represents a real breakthrough that can trickle down to mere mortals. Exciting.
The battery pack probably just takes up more room. It’s 16.8kWh vs 7.2 for a Zero. If the Zero battery pack is 42 pounds (according to the manual) then the one in this bike is just under 100. Seems very likely.
Sounds right.
With a 30-40 minute charge time, and a consolidation of various charging networks in the U.S. – it starts to get interesting.
It doesn’t take a $115k to have fun on a motorcycle. If you need a $115k motorcycle to massage your ego, you have bigger problems than a motorcycle can solve.
Kind of weird, kind of pricey, but the range is starting to get there. More powerful battery or some other trick?
I’d guess that the battery is just massive. I bet the bike weighs around 600 lbs.
I believe claimed weight is 485 pounds.
Yeah but that’s dry weight 😉
On an eBike, I don’t think there is much difference between dry weight and wet weight.
Whooooosh…..
Wow. Well then it must be an extremely light chassis with a very heavy battery on the order of twice as many kwh as a Zero.
That, or they’ve developed a new battery chemistry that utilizes pure bullshit.
Tesla cars are attainable vehicles that do things that no other car could before they came out and they continue to innovate the car ownership experience. The head of the company is a wildly successful visionary with a space program. Lots of people who buy Teslas are buying into a movement as much as a car.
This ain’t that.
Teslas are somewhat attainable, as the least expensive is over $50k and the average price of a light vehicle in the US now is about $35k. What Tesla can be lauded for is proving that EVs can be fun (great acceleration), but the rest of the cars’ construction details are merely average. The admittedly attractive designs can be attributed to a Detroit trained talent (the guy also designed the Pontiac Solstice), not someone from Silicon Valley.
I agree that it’s as much a movement as a car and that over 1/2 are sold in California yearly. That last fact is all I need to know, given that poor excuse for a state.
I was curious so I looked him up. He’s from Connecticut and was at VW for 8 years prior to his stint at GM (5 years). He moved on to Mazda for3 years. His longest tenure has been at Tesla, for the past 11 years. He is a Silicon Valley talent.
So he was not in silicon Valley for 16 years and in silicon valley for 11 years?
I don’t mean this as an insult, but it’s an electric Yamaha GTS 1000. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but no one can argue riding it would make you the center of attention everywhere… with the good and bad that comes with it. You’d really have to stick to within wealthy enclaves of major cities to survive. Perhaps once… once… you could ride the Dragon early on a weekday, and early in the season.
Put knobbies on it and take it on the next Moon or Mars mission
Well, it costs about the same as a Tesla car!
That is AWFUL!! The fugliest thing I have ever seen.
All that body work and no wind protection!
Kind of like reading a comment thread.
Gay.
… not that there’s anything wrong with that …
Tesla never made anything that ugly!