It has been speculated for years, but next year it will finally happen. In an interview with the Financial Times, Royal Enfield CEO B. Govindarajan confirmed the market launch of Royal Enfield’s first electric motorcycle in 2025.
It’s not the first time that the Enfield CEO has spoken out about the EV project, mentioning 2025 as the launch year, but in the recent interview with the Financial Times, Govindarajan dropped a few hints about the bike’s design for the first time, including the fact that it will feature a fixed battery with fast-charging capability, instead of a swappable battery.
He also said that the bike will look “gorgeous” and be “very differentiated”, explaining that while other companies are currently struggling to make money from electric vehicles, the Royal Enfield will be competitive and, presumably, profitable when it hits the market.
So what will the new Royal Enfield EV look like? As far as we can tell, there are at least two active electric motorcycle projects underway at the company right now. One of them is the electric Himalayan, which was shown off in prototype form last year and was described as a “glimpse of what you can expect from us in the future”.
The other is a lightweight, city-focused electric motorcycle with retro styling, more in line with the Maeving RM1 in terms of style and performance. It is increasingly looking like the latter machine will be the first electric Royal Enfield to hit the market.
Not only has the model’s styling recently appeared in the company’s official design registration, which in turn is derived from the ElectriK01 presented in 2022, but two potential names for the model have also surfaced, Royal Babe-E or Flying Flea.
We’ve previously reported on the possible revival of the Flying Flea name, which has been trademarked more than 20 times globally by Eicher, Royal Enfield’s parent company, since 2020. The other possible title – Royal Babe-E – appeared, without direct reference, on a slide in the background of a 2022 Royal Enfield investor relations presentation.
The slide was used as an example of Royal Enfield’s development process, but it directly refers to the electric bike project. The machine is described as “Originally styled, eye-catching” with “Unique features such as…girder fork…large diameter wheel, elegant lines, narrow build”.
Other elements mentioned include: “high-quality, tactile finishes and touch points” and a ‘neo-vintage/classic’ style. All of these things match the recent design registration and later in the same presentation a photo is shown of a concept bike called “electriK01″ with similar features that was probably used for the customer clinics, as it was not shown in public.
As for the name, the Flying Flea seems to be the favorite, but the 2022 presentation featured a logo that read Royal Babe-E with the word “Royal” in the same font as the Royal Enfield badge, with “Babe-E” in a more modern font underneath. That badge appears to be a play on the 125cc Royal Enfield Royal Baby, or RB, which was launched in 1939.
The Royal Baby was in fact a carbon copy of an earlier DKW design, the 100cc RT, with a two-stroke single cylinder and lightweight design, which had been developed for the Dutch market. Due to timing, only 190 RBs were made before WWII, but it lived on as the WD/RE (for War Department/Royal Enfield), a lightweight paratrooper fighting motorcycle better known as the Flying Flea.
It’s also conceivable that the Royal Babe-E name was intended for an entire sub-brand of electric models (hence the emphasis on the “E”) with the Flying Flea as its first product. This is supported by the fact that slides from the 2022 presentation also showed a second electric bike logo – the traditional winged RE badge, but with a lightning bolt through it – alongside the Babe-E logo.
Introducing a lightweight, city-focused electric motorcycle as the first EV to the market could be a very smart move by Royal Enfield. EV zones are being introduced in more and more cities and due to the short distances, range and charging time are not an issue in urban use. Sales of lightweight EV city motorcycles are therefore better than those of heavy EVs.
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.