Royal Enfield’s greatest announcement at EICMA 2024 – the Milan Bike 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 all the 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 course 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 reveals that it matches with Royal Enfield’s design heritage, borrowing a number of design cues and mixing them with the trendy 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 apparent inspiration from the unique Royal Enfield Flying Flea motorbike of the Nineteen Forties, famously airdropped into WWII alongside paratroopers to supply light-weight and speedy battlefield mobility. From the girder fork to the vintage-style saddle, it’s a slick-looking journey. However appearances, nonetheless eye-catching, can solely take Royal Enfield to date. For the brand new Flying Flea to turn into a industrial success, it should be backed up by the suitable specs on the proper worth.
And the crew at Royal Enfield has a solution for that too. They only aren’t telling us but.
Whereas the disclosing was large on pomp and highlighted the model’s deal with bringing accessibility to the commuter electrical motorbike market, the corporate isn’t fairly able to spill the main points on specifics. Practically 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 bought a while to get there.
Nevertheless, we will nonetheless glean so much from seems to be alone. The battery itself is moderately small, bodily, that means it’s unlikely to supply a really lengthy vary on a single cost. The slim battery case seemingly implies a single row of cylindrical battery cells, limiting its whole capability. Maybe two rows of cells may match, nevertheless it’d be a decent squeeze. Both method you slice it, there’s simply not a ton of house 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+”, that 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 should seemingly be adequate for hopping on native highways for an exit or two. That’s peak commuter bike, proper there.
Secondly, the motor isn’t all that enormous both. Bodily dimension isn’t the one indication of energy in an electrical motor, nevertheless it’s normally a superb corollary. This isn’t going to be laying down LiveWire-like 0-60 mph occasions of three.0 seconds, which once more, isn’t one thing a commuter bike is supposed to do. If I have 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 shall 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 advantageous, however not breathtaking. And that’s okay. In truth, it’s what the market wants proper now.
We’ve all watched as high-performance electrical motorbike corporations have struggled, even gone bankrupt, attempting to chase excessive pace and lengthy vary. That pursuit of efficiency is usually an almost inconceivable balancing act with out seeing the worth skyrocket. The present dimension and expense of batteries merely make it practically inconceivable 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 an alternative of racing for the highest, Royal Enfield has chosen the trail much less traveled nowadays: comfortably nestling into the smart 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 can be accessible. And as many different corporations have seen their gross sales stagnate or shrink, Royal Enfield has continued to develop in the previous couple of years, reaching practically 1,000,000 items bought final 12 months alone.
That mixture of a watch for design combined with smart 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.
Fortuitously – or extra seemingly 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 occasions 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 an instantaneous industrial success, we have been assured that it wouldn’t drag the corporate down. That doesn’t imply the Royal Enfield crew isn’t anticipating success, however solely that they’re not watching the world go by by rose-colored using goggles both.
How a lot will the Flying Flea electrical motorbike value?
That is the large query. Greater than “how briskly?” and greater than “how far?”, individuals wish to understand how a lot the Flying Flea C6 and S6 will value.
And similar 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 positive, each member of Royal Enfield I questioned appeared to know that pricing was going to be the essential issue right here. They’ll see which machines have succeed and which have failed over the previous couple of 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 suggest that the corporate is concentrating on a number of battery capacities and energy ranges to create numerous choices for riders, that means the entry-level mannequin may very well be fairly attractively priced, even when it should hand over some vary and prime finish to get there.
In the end, we don’t have a lot substance to evaluate the Flying Flea on but. The bike seems to be nice, at the least on this journalist’s opinion. However as soon as we will study what’s happening beneath the hood and what number of paychecks it should set us again, we will get a greater thought of how nicely Royal Enfield can do on its first electrical shot.
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