Buell set to return (again) with all-new electric motorcycle

Erik Buell has a new project in the works – and this time, he’s going electric. After numerous incarnations of the Buell brand, he’s now teaming up with New York-based boutique manufacturer Vanguard Motorcycles and French racing technology company Spark Racing Technology – to create a new electric motorcycle brand, VanguardSpark Motorcycles.

After the recent demise of Buell’s latest company just over a year ago, long-time sportbike creator Erik Buell is making the transition to electric technology with his latest motorcycle startup. He’s joined forces with Spark Racing Technology, a French racing technology company which has been the official car supplier for the Formula E Championship since the series’ inaugural season. And SRT’s founder Frédéric Vasseur is going to be joining Buell at the all-new VanguardSpark brand, alongside New York-based boutique manufacturer Vanguard Motorcycles, creator of the ‘Vanguard Roadster’.

VanguardSpark has said it will initially be releasing two models, a pedal-assisted e-bike called the ‘SpeedBike’ and a more motorcycle-oriented electric bike called the ‘commuter’.  At this stage, only basic drawings have been released to the public – and the one we’ve seen shows what looks like a sport-styled electric motorcycle with batteries housed inside a monocoque frame and a hub-mounted unit powering the rear-wheel.

It is a little disappointing that Buell and Vasseur aren’t working on something more a little more performance oriented, considering their backgrounds – but with four patent applications in the bank, and prototypes expected to arrive in the Summer, it’ll be interesting to see what Buell, Vasseur and Vanguard come up with…