More Details on Flying Flea’s C6 Electric Motorcycle

Royal Enfield just unveiled its new electric motorcycle brand, Flying Flea, and the preproduction C6 model with it. The Flying Flea brand will focus on “City Plus,” electric motorcycles designed primarily for tight urban environments and some weekend exploration. C6 models have been in development for over six years and already hold 28 unique patents. Details in the press release were intentionally vague, as the bikes are about a year from release. Still, today we sat down with Royal Enfield CEO B. Govindarajan, Chief Growth Officer of Electric Mario Alvisi, and Managing Director of Eicher Motors Siddhartha Lal, to ask some direct questions and get more information on this exciting new platform.

“We have a global product,” Mario Alvisi said. “We are going to have different configurations for different markets. And even inside, for example North America, the idea is to have different battery sizes, different power delivery, and also for the different regulations, so people can ride with no license, for people to ride with full-power license. The idea is to make something that is flexible and accessible for everyone.”

We don’t have any direct answers on battery capacity, range, or top speed (not that we didn’t try to get the trio to slip with some details), but we do know that owners will be able to configure the bike in a way that suits their needs, and hopefully, their budget as well. The bike is still in development, so some things, like price, Royal Enfield won’t share until much closer to the release date. It was clear, however, that these would be an accessible bike like Royal Enfield is known for, so it’s not too much of a stretch to hope that it enters the market around $7,000, where we see many RE 650s. Alvisi teased that “It will be perfect to ride from Santa Monica to Ventura and back.” Which is roughly 60 miles each way.

“The bike is there,” Lal said. “We’ve been riding it the last couple of months. We’ve all been in Barcelona riding bikes. That’s the job. Now a little bit of fine-tuning and we’ll be here next year at EICMA with all of the details, hopefully launching the bike.”

Royal Enfield decided on a design with a nonremovable battery. This decision was based on market research and talking to over 5,000 people. While many customers originally stated that they’d prefer a removable battery, however, the case was in ownership, most users didn’t use it and opted to leave removable batteries in the bike. Theft was another deterrent; a nonremovable battery is much more difficult to steal. With the intended in-city use of these bikes, the security of a locked-in battery makes sense. Packaging was another major consideration; removable batteries need an easy access point and room for the battery to come out of the chassis easily. A sleek design is more important to potential buyers.

When asked about alienating existing customers, the answer was simple and direct: It can happen, but it won’t stop progress. Flying Flea is a new brand and Royal Enfield will continue to produce heritage-inspired ICE motorcycles. With the brand’s research, its investment in Stark, and the current EV market, it’s decided that now is the time to launch this machine And as Lal said: “We can’t hold the company back from what it should be doing for the sake of a few people who may be very old school and not appreciate stuff like this.”

“We have a strategic investment in Stark,” Govindarajan said. “They are good at a few things: lightweight, model designs, tight packaging. We are good at scale and supply chain, so that’s the type of partnership we are doing.”

As far as the naming structure, the “C” in C6 stands for “Classic,” just as “S” in the teased S6 stands for “Scrambler.” According to Alvisi and Lal, the number 6 felt like a nice middle number that would allow Flying Flea to produce smaller bikes, like a C2, or larger machines like a C9.

When it comes to charging the C6, they didn’t give specifics because it sounds like they’re still working out the details, but on-board fast-charging capabilities are promised. They will not be using a proprietary system. You will not need to bring anything extra along with you to charge anywhere—there will be onboard storage for a plug-in charger. The team spoke of “guerrilla charging,” in testing, and knowing the need to find a plug wherever you are.

“Fast charging gives an answer to the consumer faster. ‘Yeah, I need it faster.’ But then battery life also has an impact,” Govindarajan said. “So we have to look at the proper charge time and the discharge so that the battery life is also an answer.”

Talking about the magic formula that helps keep Flying Flea out of the EV startup graveyard, the brand doesn’t have the solution yet. The team is still figuring it out. But Royal Enfield and, thus, Flying Flea are large enough and have enough support to do that.

“We’re not going to go into a frenzy and have cash flow problems and all that. We can build on it. We can work on it,” Lal said.

So while we don’t have specifics like price, range, battery chemistry, or maximum speed, we do know where Flying Flea is positioning the C6 and the “City Plus” messaging that surrounds it. It’s aiming for a familiar Royal Enfield price point. This model fits into the company’s global strategy and is intended for all markets, and more are coming.

“It could be super successful at start; it could be medium successful; it could be less,” Lal said, “but as long as we get some start, we can build on something. So either we build on this model and platform and it grows, or we get feedback that helps us inform the next product.”