After introducing their eye-popping electric motorcycle TS at the EICMA 2019 with a hubless design, Finnish EV brand Verge Motorcycles has expressed that they are interested to enter India.
In an interaction with EVW, Verge Motorcycles’ Marketing Manager, Spencer Cutlan, has said that the company understands the size of the Indian market and will plan to enter India soon. He said that Verge wants to grow steadily as a brand and take their time to create unique products that will capture the current growing trend of EV acceptance. While growing quick is great, Verge believes it can also easily affect the product’s quality. With the TS, the company wants to offer a bike that has revolutionary characteristics such as the design, motor technology and rider experience.
We are aware of the market size in India and also the interest in the EV sector. It would be a bad idea not to address the needs of the Indian market and we definitely plan to have Verge bikes in India, and across the world. Right now we are focussing on ticking all the legal boxes for the European market and after that, we will progress to meet the requirements of additional markets worldwide. In terms of interest, our IG and Facebook pages have been flooded with people from India asking all kinds of questions, which is great to see. We are still in our foundation as a company but we have goals to become a globally recognised brand.
Spencer Cutlan, Marketing Manager, Verge Motorcycles
Talking about the timelines of production and launch, Cutlan has said that the COVID-19 outbreak has had an impact, as the company’s supply chains are closely linked, and on all businesses regardless of the sector. Mass production was originally set to start this year once EU type approval was complete. He said that the new timelines cannot be revealed now as it is not possible to predict governmental legislation, travel restriction and social activities. We expect to hear an update from the company later this year on where it stands with respect to the sales launch and the global rollout.
The Verge TS is driven by an 80 kW motor that produces a peak torque of 1,000 Nm and can accelerate up to 180 km/h of top speed, with 0 to 100 km/h coming in at under 4 seconds. The motor itself is a unique one fitted in a hubless rear wheel. Battery capacity is unknown but the electric bike is claimed to have a range of up to 300 km in the city and up to 200 km on the highways. Using the onboard charger, the battery can be charged to 100 per cent in four hours and with a DC fast charger, the same takes 45 to 50 minutes. The bike is open or pre-order with a deposit of € 2,000 and is priced at € 24990 (INR 20.67 lakh).