The high-power electric bike market is a bit of a jungle at the moment, with new high-tech designs continually popping up. And getting the PR and marketing right is arguably even more important than getting the engineering sorted.
The Verge electric superbike looks even more outlandish than normal for this high-tech sector, dominated by a ‘hubless’ rear wheel with a motor unit built in. The design incorporates a rim-drive electric motor, so there’s no need for chains, belts, shafts or sprockets: merely some high-tension power cables to deliver the motor’s current.
And the Finnish firm is looking to back up its flashy 200hp design with a new advisory board, packed with the great and good from the automotive industry. At the top of the list are ex-F1 racing legend Mika Häkkinen, and Mark Wilson, the (slightly-less-famous) ex-chief financial officer at Aston Martin and McLaren.
“Our ambition is to grow quickly and expand our operations to more and more new markets in the next couple of years, and our advisors will play an important role in this. We are extremely pleased to have this group of world-class professionals behind us. I believe they will greatly help maintain our position as the market leader and scale the business as efficiently as possible,” says Tuomo Lehtimäki, CEO of Verge Motorcycles.
And the firm is also looking to expand its operations in London, Tallinn (Estonia) and San Francisco. “In addition to skilled hardware engineers, we at Verge are interested in technological expertise in such areas as connected vehicles, artificial intelligence, next-generation human-machine interfaces, machine vision and sensor-based pattern recognition technologies, for example. We offer our employees an unrivalled opportunity to participate in the development of the future of motorcycles together with our global partners and other experts,” said Marko Lehtimäki, Verge’s chief technology officer.
Verge Motorcycles
www.vergemotorcycles.com