Royal Enfield has unveiled its first production-ready electric motorcycle to enter the silent era of motorcycling—an unthinkable for a brand known, almost reverred, for the thump of its motorcycles.
It's called the Flying Flea, in a hark back to World War II Enfields that were light enough to be parachuted into a battlefield. Flying Flea will sit as a separate brand within Royal Enfield to spawn multiple EVs in the future, including an S6 scrambler. What was showcased today was the C6, an urban commuter that can be taken on short weekend rides around town.
"This mission (of pure motorcycling)...is the link between Royal Enfield and the Flying Flea, our new brand for urban-plus mobility," Siddhartha Lal, managing director at Royal Enfield's parent, Eicher Motors Ltd., said during a media scrum ahead of EICMA 2024 in Milan on Monday.
"This is a step in our evolution as a brand and an opportunity for us to distil the essence of Royal Enfield DNA [into electric mobility]."
According to Lal, Royal Enfield aims to recreate the success of its middle-weight motorycles in the electric two-wheeler space.
At a time when 100-cc motorcycles made up 99% of India's two-wheeler market, Royal Enfield chose to make and sell higher capacity motorcycles. That strategy has paid off, so much so that the Madras Original is set to achieve the one million units milestone in a year's time, Lal said.
"We are going for disruption. We aren't throwing dice and hoping for the best," Lal said. "We believe in this idea."
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