- Verge Motorcycles set a new world record for an electric motorcycle
- The Verge TS Pro went 193 miles on a single charge.
An electric motorcycle made by a Finnish startup set a new world record for the longest journey on a single charge. The Verge TS Pro, which is manufactured in Estonia, drove 193 miles (310.6 kilometers) around the United Kingdom’s capital city—and it still had some miles left on the guess-o-meter when the attempt was over.
That’s a big win for a two-wheeler powered by just a 20.2-kilowatt-hour battery, but there’s a bit more to it than that. Riders Sam Clarke and Sara Sloman took turns slicing the electric bike through Greater London and needed just over 16 hours to complete the challenge.
Verge didn’t say what the average speed of the record attempt was, but simple maths tells us the average is roughly 12 miles per hour. That’s typical of a congested metropolis like London, and it’s good to know that one could ride an electric bike to work and back home without having to worry about charging. But when it comes to actual long-distance point-to-point travel, it’s a whole different story.
Verge itself said the TS Pro can go for about 124 miles at a constant speed of 56 mph, while the official combined range, which takes highway and city riding speeds into account, is 119 miles. Verge’s estimate for “calm stop-and-go riding in an urban environment at low speeds” with a 165-pound rider is 217 miles.
The new record is an impressive feat nonetheless, as is the bike itself. Using an in-wheel motor at the rear, the Finnish startup could use the whole body of the bike for batteries, which leads to more range. Speaking of the battery, it can be fully charged from a DC fast charger at a maximum rate of 25 kilowatts. That is quite slow by modern EV standards, but it takes 35 minutes to go from zero to 80% state of charge. From an AC source, the battery can accept a maximum of 3.5 kW, which should be plenty for overnight charging.
4
Source: Verge Motorcycles
The Verge TS Pro has a maximum output of 136 horsepower (102 kW) and an impressive torque figure of 737 pound-feet (1,000 Newton-meters), which is enough to clock a zero to 60 miles per hour sprint in 3.5 seconds. Weighing just 540 pounds helps on that time, too, but Verge sells an even more powerful version. Called the TS Ultra, it has 201 hp (150 kW), 885 lb-ft (1,200 Nm) of torque and a slightly bigger 21.8-kWh battery that enables a city range of 233 miles.
Verge has three stores in Europe and two in the United States, but deliveries stateside have been delayed until the end of this year because of a lengthy homologation process. When that box is checked, the TS Pro and TS Ultra will come with a NACS charge port in the U.S. Pricing starts at $29,900 for the TS Pro and a rather spicy $44,900 for the TS Ultra.
