No other new company in recent times has enjoyed as much public attention as Jawa. Since its initial reveal in 2018, the reborn company has stayed high in customers’ minds, despite the fact that it took an extraordinarily long time for deliveries to happen. More recently, the company launched its production-spec Perak bobber earlier this year, and its BS6 motorcycles have now started reaching showrooms. However, behind the scenes, the company is busy with other projects, and sources tell us that a fully electric vehicle is among them. Details are quite scarce at the moment, but we do have a couple of noteworthy nuggets of information.
The first one is that Classic Legends, the company that owns the Jawa brand name, is working on this project fully in-house. Despite the fact that Mahindra is a majority stake holder, we hear that Classic Legends is developing this machine independently of its parent company. Mahindra has plenty of experience with EVs over the years, including racing in the Formula E championship, so some technology transfer is bound to take place, but the project itself is being undertaken by Classic Legends. The second point is that, as with its petrol-powered motorcycles, the company intends to keep localisation levels as high as possible.
However, with EVs, there are some components you can’t source locally yet, so parts like battery cells will have to be imported, and possibly even the battery management system. Design-wise, the motorcycle is likely to keep to Jawa’s traditional lines. After all, the company’s entire business formula hinges on its heritage, especially this early in its life. Nevertheless, given the electric powertrain, this could become the most futuristic-looking bike in the Jawa line-up.
The fact that Jawa is working on an electric motorcycle comes as no surprise. The world is fast heading towards an electrified future, regardless of whether it makes complete sense yet. As a result, manufacturers will have to keep up, including the ones that claim to offer a retro and nostalgic experience. For example, Royal Enfield, the company whose incredible success story has quite likely led to Jawa’s rebirth, confirmed it was working on an electric two-wheeler back in 2018. Meanwhile, Harley-Davidson, another heritage driven brand already has its first EV, the Livewire on sale.
While we know that Jawa’s electric motorcycle is under development, when it will be ready is less of a question than when Jawa will be ready to put it on sale. It’s unlikely we will get our first glimpse of this motorcycle before 2021, and the wait to actually buy one may be even longer.
Vishal Venugopal
Ved Janve
