First deliveries of Volcon Grunt off-road electric motorbikes
While the pandemic has delayed or killed off many an electric vehicle startup, the USA’s Volcon has started shipping its Grunt electric off-road motorcycle to customers.
The Grunt is the inaugural product from the self-proclaimed “first all-electric off-road powersports company,” with the Texas factory commencing deliveries of the two-wheelers to buyers throughout the US and Latin America.
First deliveries were planned for early 2021, but the delayed Grunt appears a funster worth waiting for.
Reality bites for Volcon Grunt
However, reality has hit many of the Grunt’s initially promised figures. Range is now only ‘up to 120km’ rather than the original 160km. That figure is calculated from using the bike in tamest Explorer mode, and using two 2.3kWh batteries.
As standard the bike comes with a single 2kWh battery, so you’d need to buy a second battery and swap it with the drained one while out adventuring. A range of 50km with that single battery looks more realistic. It’ll only charge at up to 800W (0.8kW), which takes around 2.5 hours from a household powerpoint (which in Australia puts out 2.3kW).
The motor is a 25kW unit (down from 37kW) but torque remains at 100Nm, while the bike’s weight has climbed from 90Kg to 113Kg.
Volcon initially promised a 100km/h top speed, and that time reached in just six seconds, but reality bites with the production bikes out for delivery only reaching 65km/h. For safety’s sake, maybe that’s no bad thing.
Volcon’s revised its pricing upwards for new orders. This time last year they were selling for US$5995 ($8200), but the Volcon website currently lists the Grunt at US$7995 ($10,900).
It’s a lesson that many EV startups make bold promises (Nikola, anyone?) that we must take with a pinch of salt. But let’s consider the positives – primary one being this desirable Volcon Grunt has actually made production.
There’s no clutch and no gears to worry about, so it’s basically a point and press (and brake) bike, going about its business in silence. As an adventurous lifestyle bonus, the Grunt’s all-electric powertrain is IP67-rated, meaning it can basically work underwater.
Ground clearance is a handy 300mm.
Fulfilling the pre-order queue is the first task, the Grunt’s popularity seeing 50 pre-orders received in the first 24 hours of being on sale.
As it’s an off-road only bike (not possible to be road registered) there seems no reason why an eager Aussie couldn’t buy one and import it themselves. The Volcon website promises Grunts ordered today will ship in early November 2021.
A kid’s version – called the Runt – can be ordered for US$2995 ($4100) and it’s promised to ship in early December 2021.
Although not yet available for order, Volcon also promises four-wheeled, side-by-side Stag and Beast UTV models, due in the second half of 2022 and late 2023 respectively.
