Green corner

Stark and Royal Enfield tie-up points to electric future

On the face of it, a European startup firm specialising in building motocross machines should have very little to offer the Indian Royal Enfield firm. The crossover between full-on dirt race bikes and sensible retroroadsters is minimal to say the least. So what’s behind the deal signed by the Stark MX firm and Eicher, Enfield’s parent company?

The answer is electric technology, of course. Stark has just launched the VARG, a hardcore battery-powered motocross weapon, and it seems that the Indian giant is interested in potential technology crossovers between dirt and road. Eicher has invested €10 million in Stark, taking on just over 10 per cent of the firm, and taking a seat on the Stark board of directors.

With a petrol engine ban on the cards for the 2030s across much of the world, the race is on to develop new powertrains. And a tie-up with Eicher’s financial heft and Stark’s cutting-edge tech could be just the thing to help produce silent, electric Royal Enfields to take on the foothills of Everest, as well as the North Circular. Indeed, the firms say just that. Eicher MD Siddhartha Lal told us: “We love the vision, passion and focus of the amazing team at Stark. Leisure motorcycles do not easily lend themselves to EV technology at this stage, due to challenges like the battery range, packaging, weight and cost. This has resulted in stunted growth of this segment till now.

“Stark Future has been able to understand and harness the potential of EV technology by dramatically outperforming ICE offerings, without compromising on range, weight, packaging and cost. We believe that Stark Future has the highest potential for real breakout growth in the EV leisure space with this model, and the potential to use this strong base to extend into other contiguous segments and beyond.”