Volcon Grunt off-road electric motorbike works underwater
Another week, another beguiling electric toy teased to help us forget pandemic financial woes and scream “Take My Money!”
This time it’s the Volcon Grunt, a US$5995 ($8,400) electric off-road motorcycle with a range up to 160 kilometres, 100km/h top speed (reached in a claimed six-seconds) and features this season’s must-have: the fattest all-terrain tyres you can fit under mudguards.
Still not enough? Okay, the Grunt can drive underwater. That got your attention?
Its all-electric powertrain is IP67-rated (I had to look it up too), basically meaning it’s fully waterproof. “Don’t worry about pressure washing or stalling out crossing deep rivers or streams; the Grunt can actually be ridden underwater,” the blurb on Volcon’s website says.
Translating to the Aussie market, and away from crossing our swollen rivers, cruising around the bottom of the family swimming pool on a Grunt during a family BBQ would be quite the scene.
Volcon’s a startup company based in Texas, USA, and says it “designs and builds the most extraordinary electric vehicles that are transforming the way you think about and experience the outdoors.”
Well, when it says vehicles (plural), the only Volcon product you can order right now is the Grunt bike.
Volcon also showcases on its website a Stag electric quad bike with rollover cage, and Beast five-seater electric buggy/ute type thing, although only photo renderings and no way to reserve these four-wheel funsters suggest they’re some way from production. A company press release suggested by “late 2021 or 2022.”
But a real, working Grunt is seen out in the wilds on Volcon’s website, with video including it doing, as the kids would say, some sweet jumps.
There’s no mention if the Grunt’s road legal or not. The limited video footage and imagery shows only off-road work, but this probably won’t concern the target market.
There’s heavy suggestion Volcon products will be used by the USA’s always-enthusiastic hunting fraternity – a camo-clad chap with antler horns strapped to his back drops all the hints you need.
As for specifications, Volcon says the Grunt offers up to 37kW and 100Nm, but it only has to shift the bike’s 90kg weight plus its rider. Ground clearance is a decent 300mm.
To quash range anxiety – and there’s no chance it’ll do the claimed 160km if you’re chasing moose on off-road trails – the battery is interchangeable. Keeping a spare (in the back of the Tesla Cybertruck or Hummer EV, one would imagine) for a rapid swap makes perfect sense.
Battery size hasn’t been revealed, but it must be a tiddler as it’s claimed you can achieve a full charge from a domestic power point in just two hours; think something like 4kWh.
The Grunt can be reserved for a US$250 deposit and it’s promised you’ll be one of the first 250 owners when deliveries start in Spring 2021. The website claims the first 50 Grunts sold out in 24 hours.
Time will tell how optimistic Volcon’s targets and delivery times are, but as it appears they’ll be off-road only, don’t bet against one being imported into Australia for zero-emissions paddock work. Or swimming pool entertainment.
