Triumph’s electric revolution
Triumph’s TE-1 promises genuine super-naked performance without hours spent at a socket
Fancy a Street Triple that can kick out 174bhp at peak power combined with a near-silent wave of surging torque-laden drive? Like the idea of electric, but don’t like the reality of short range anxiety and yawning-long recharge times? Perhaps the ability to go 120 miles on one charge and to re-juice to 80% in just 20 minutes will start to answer your objections. Triumph reveal some impressive first steps towards electrification,
Triumph have revealed key details of their TE-1 electric bike project, which not only looks amazing but also boasts tech and performance figures that could tempt even the most die-hard petrolhead. Working with an array of British companies, including Williams Advanced Engineering, Integral Powertrain and Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick, and funded by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, Triumph have created a prototype that has the power to challenge what we think about electric bikes. Before we get to the details though, let’s look at the headline figures.
In finished trim Triumph say the TE-1 will weigh a hair over 220kg, will produce 174bhp and will travel around 120 miles before you need to plug it in. In short, it’s a portly Speed Triple but we’ve not even told you the really positive news yet: The TE-1 will be capable of a 0-80% charge in just 20 minutes. If you’d limped into a charging station when you started reading this, the bike would already have added five miles to its range.
In the battle to convince more people to take up electric, a key part of keeping aggressive green legislation away from two wheels, it’s a huge stride forward and something Triumph are well aware of. If you want to hear about the nitty gritty of just how they’ve done it, you can read about that overleaf. As to why? Read on. “What we wanted to do was investigate how you could create an electric bike that would convince somebody to consider an electric bike, or even move them away from something with an internal combustion engine (ICE),” says Steve Sargent, Triumph’s Chief Product Officer. “To do that we have to understand the customer, how they use their bikes and what they’d want from their bikes. For electric bikes to grow, it has to be a natural choice for someone because the bike is desirable in its own right.” Interestingly Triumph appear to have skipped the whole ‘you can ride it to work for less than a bag of chips’ angle, instead focusing on how the TE-1 could be a weekend plaything. Despite that, they’re keenly aware of the cost of similar competitors. “The challenge is that people want something that gives them the performance of an internal combustion engine bike but they don’t want to pay a huge premium,” adds Sargent. “For us, it has to be at a price point where there’s enough people willing to pay for it. Whilst battery costs are coming down, they’re still expensive, so the bike will come to market when we can get it down to a price that we think people are willing to pay.” So what’s next? This reveal is phase two of the project (phase one – the initial announcement – was in May 2019) with Triumph saying that phase three, likely to be a preview of the prototype they’re now testing, is expected in October. After TE-1 the sky’s the limit, with Sargent hinting at the scalable potential for torquey applications like the Rocket, while Triumph’s CEO, Nick Bloor, has said the TE-1 is “one of the foundations for our future electric motorcycle strategy”. This bold first reveal shows Triumph intend to be an electric super-power.
‘Electric bikes have to be seen as desirable’