Blacksmith B2 AI-enabled bike, developed by
Blacksmith Electric, was recently teased by the brand. The electric motorcycle
has been developed by a Chennai-based start-up and is expected to hit the
Indian market sometime next year. It will come with its patented swappable
battery technology.
Talking about the bike's design, it combines the
design of a retro tourer with several modern elements. For starters, the
Blacksmith B2 gets an LED projector headlamp, wide handlebars, a digital display
on the fuel tank, single saddle, and a tall windscreen. The turn indicators
come sporting a rather interesting design as well as on the B2, they are
placed on the sides of the fuel tank.
The instrument cluster on this bike is a digital
panel placed on top of the fuel tank. This panel will provide all the necessary
information like battery range, speed, odometer, and will also offer support
for GPS, probably in the form of turn-by-turn navigation. Enabled with
artificial intelligence, we think that this bike will also offer telematics
related to riding behaviour to the rider. And apart from these features, the
Blacksmith B2 will also come equipped with an anti-theft alarm and circuit
closing system.
About the
B2's powertrain, it's propelled by a 5kW asynchronous motor that delivers
19.44 bhp of peak power and 96 Nm of peak torque. This motor enables the bike
to achieve a maximum pre-set speed of 120 km/h and send it from 0-50 km/h in
3.7 seconds. Also, the bike offers a range of 120 km on a single charge and can
be charged completely in four hours.
The B2 bike also facilitates the use of two battery
packs together. This means that the range of the bike can be increased to 240
km on a single charge. And as mentioned above, these are swappable batteries,
which means that riders will be able to replace the depleted batteries with new
ones. Blacksmith Electric says it owns the patent for the Battery Exchange
(Swap) technology, which it had filed for in 2006.
It must be noted that Blacksmith had started
developing the electric motorcycle's prototype in 2003 and revealed the fourth
iteration of the prototype earlier this year. The electric motorcycle maker
also claims that one unit of the third-gen prototype of this electric
motorcycle has clocked close to 7,000 km on Indian streets.
When launched, Blacksmith B2 will be second
AI-enabled bike in India after Revolt RV400 electric bike, which is expected to
launch this month.
