Real Motors, a South Carolina-based company, has unveiled Project Ares, its first all-electric motorcycle, priced starting at $20,000 with limited shipments planned for next year. The machine was designed and built in Greenville, near established and emerging electric vehicle operations including BMW, Scout Motors, Volvo and Redwood Materials. Co-founders Trent Dingman and Michael Feng began the company as a challenge to build the best design they could and demonstrate their capabilities.
The Ares carries a futuristic shape that would suit the streets of Night City, the setting of Cyberpunk 2077, with styling elements reminiscent of Star Wars and Wipeout. A translucent fairing on the prototype ridden, called Ghost, reveals the charger's cooling vanes inside the space where a fuel tank would normally sit, along with bright orange high-voltage lines routed around the battery pack. The pack is expected to measure roughly 15 kilowatt-hours and charge at up to 3.3 kilowatts through a standard SAE J1772 port mounted on top of the tank.
The pack feeds an electric motor rated at 101 horsepower. Real Motors quotes 738 pound-feet of torque, a figure measured at the wheel after gearing; measured at the motor output shaft the way most motorcycles are rated, output is likely closer to 200 pound-feet. The bike weighs 485 pounds, comparable to Zero Motorcycles' SR/F and nearly 100 pounds more than a Ducati Panigale V4, with a wheelbase about three-quarters of an inch longer than the Ducati's.
The riding position follows cafe racer convention, with low bars, high pegs and a wide saddle. Dingman told the reviewer the bike has neither traction control nor antilock braking. The Ares offers three speed settings and delivers power smoothly rather than lurching, though it requires a strong, sustained push to turn, feeling more like a cruiser than a sportbike. Buyers can specify Öhlins dampers and Brembo brakes.
Real Motors lists 120 miles of city range on a charge, a figure the reviewer did not approach during a day of riding. The machine remains pre-production, and the company says much could change before deliveries.
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