Vanguard Spark was formed by Alfa Romeo F1 principal Francois-Xavier Terny of Vanguard Motorcycles and Frédéric Vasseur, founder of electric Formula E race car company Spark Racing Technology.
Now they have changed their name to Fuell, which is a clever reference to Buell, even though their machines have no fuel!
We could have expected the founders’ racing genes to flow through to their products.
However, they have unveiled the Flow “urban mobility” electric motorcycle and the Fluid pedal-assisted e-bike.
The bikes are not available for test ride until they are fully revealed on April 23, but will be on show in New York for a month to investors, journalists and “influencers”.
Prices start at $US3295 (about $A4650) for the Fluid e-bike and $US10,995 ($A15,500) for the Flow electric motorcycles.
They say they will also have credit, leasing and battery leasing options.
Francois-Xavier told us Flow and Fluid “will be made available in all Western countries, eg North America, Europe, and Aus/NZ/Japan and key cities in Asia like Singapore”.
We asked about exporting to Australia: “Well let’s say that our official announcement was yesterday, so let’s wait and see a little longer.”
Flow
Flow is an electric motorcycle available in 11kW (125cc equivalent) or 35kW versions.
There is no pricing information or technical details available yet such as range, but they keep referring to it as a “city” bike.
As expected from Erik whose Buell motorcycles had innovative features such as oil in the swingarm, fuel in the frame and peripheral brake discs, the Flow does have technical innovations.
Fuell say it has a proprietary wheel-motor1, connected dashboard and a low centre of gravity.