News from San Francisco tell us that Alta Motors has begun production on its electric supermoto, the Alta Redshift SM. We have been waiting a long time for this powerful electric supermoto to come to reality, ever since we rode the prototype model waaaay back in 2011.
The Redshift SM is Alta’s second model, as the motocross-focused Redshift MX started shipping to customers in late-2015, and was the company’s first electric motorcycle out of the starting blocks. The first street-legal model from Alta, the Redshift SM will cost a pricy $15,495 MSRP.
Rumors of street-legal enduro model, and possibly even a street-tracker bike have been coming from San Francisco as well, as Alta is ramping up its production after closing a $27 million round in funding earlier this year.
Today’s news means that Alta dealers and pre-order customers can expect Redshift supermotos on showroom floors around Labor Day.
While for soon-to-be-owners, the timing of Alta Motors’ announcement couldn’t come any sooner (some pre-order customers have been waiting for a very long time); in terms of what is going on in the motorcycle industry, Alta Motors is starting delivery of its supermoto model at an interesting moment in time.
This is because KTM just announced its own electric motorcycle program for the US market, with very aggressive pricing on its KTM Freeride E-XC model.
Underpowered and with a smaller battery compared to the Alta Redshift, KTM is instead making a bigger splash with its price tag: $8,300 – just a $300 more than the KTM Freeride 250R.
With a supermoto model expected from KTM as well, the electric motorcycle game is starting to heat up, as Alta and KTM take on Zero Motorcycles.
So far the game has been a balancing act of performance, battery life, and price to consumers…with manufacturers only able to pick two of those three attributes. However, it will be interesting to see which brand can deliver first on all three points.
As for the Alta Redshift SM, we will be swinging a leg over a production model soon enough, to see how this electric supermoto stacks up. Stay tuned.
Source: Alta Motors
