– New electric Suzuki bike under development
– Based on RM-Z dirt bike
– Race bike likely to be revealed first
Suzuki has finally decided to develop an electric dirt bike. According to leaked patents, the company is in the advanced stage of having this dirt bike ready.
Suzuki isn’t the first company to venture out in this segment. Honda and Yamaha have already done the work and also unveiled their dirt bike prototypes a few years ago. Suzuki didn’t want to be left behind and this EV project is likely to be unveiled to the world in the next few months.
The leaked patent designs don’t show full prototypes, but they focus more on how the power is delivered to the rear wheel. The patent images show a transmission which uses reduction gears to step down the power of the motor before it reaches the front sprocket. Suzuki is trying to patent the layout of the gears, intended to minimise the size of the entire powertrain in such a way that, in its entirety, it is no wider than the motor.
The bike in the leaked pictures resembles the RM-Z, which makes us believe that the Japanese brand is building this new EV around the chassis of the RM-Z. It doesn’t make sense to develop a brand new electric bike from the ground-up as that would require years of R&D. The RM-Z is a proven motorcycle and Suzuki knows that it could use this bike to launch their first electric dirt bike. This route will help Suzuki save a lot of money, time and effort. When this motorcycle gets ready for production, likely, Suzuki will first go racing with it and then bring it to the masses.