We've seen a lot of electric scooters on the Indian market but electric motorcycles are really
hard to come by. But that changes today because in this video we're riding Tork Motors Kratos R,
the first electric motorcycle from the company and I think on the market and today we'll find out
what that motorcycle will do and why electric motorcycles are so hard to make. Are you ready?
Hit four buttons for us, the subscribe button, the bell notification icon,
if you do like the video, give us a thumbs up and please do share it with your friends
and if you're ready, let's talk about Tork.
Now this company is a little bit different from the average electric vehicle start-up because the
founder, Kapil Shelke almost out of college, decided he wanted to race electric motorcycles. In fact,
they did build race motorcycles, go to the Isle of Man and they won themselves a podium there.
So this is not only a company who I think knows how to work the electric powertrain, but they
should be able to make a chassis that excites a rider as well, but the challenge for them is,
this is a mass market motorcycle that's going to be sold to average riders. It's an ecosystem that
the scooters access and that can be controlled. But the question that the electric motorcycle
will always pose is, will you remain restricted to the city? That's the first challenge. Tork's
design uses a trellis for the frame, the bolt-on subframe as well as the swingarm as its base.
From this they hang the waterproof battery pack and behind that is the motor, which Tork claims
is exceptionally efficient, thanks to its design, and the R gets chain drive. At the bottom of the
battery is a finned compartment that contains the power electronics and don't worry, it's 165
millimetres above the ground, weight is around 140 kilos, top speed is 105 for the Kratos R,
but we don't ride the spec sheet, right? So how does it come together? This is normally the part
of the story where the electric vehicle story goes south and the throttle connection, the rear wheel
all of that doesn't work and it's a prototype and firmware will come and all of that drama
and I'm sorry to tell you this, but the Tork is exactly the same. No, I'm kidding, it's not,
it's not it is a prototype, the firmware isn't final, but it actually does work.
So the difference between economy mode and the power mode is obvious, the torque flow changes
in both modes, it's smooth, the performance is nice, it's one of the quietest, most refined
powertrains I've tested despite the chain drive, so it really comes together. So going through slow
speeds in the city, out on the highway doing 65-70kmph, the small mountain section we got,
where we had to go uphill and downhill, it all comes together and this has to be one of the
most promising electric vehicles I've tested yet. And yes, they're still saying it's a prototype,
which means now I'm excited. Because it isn't just the motor, the ride quality is quite comfortable,
although the rear shock is definitely stiffer than the front. The brakes are quite good, but to me
the highlight of the Kratos R is its handling which is light, agile and responsive, but,
stick the Kratos R in economy mode, and you will find that the performance in the city is eminently
acceptable, bump it up into sport mode, and there will be a jump in torque, although I did wish that
there was a little bit more torque available in sport mode. We were also warned that the beta
software would eventually cause a thermal shutdown as the motor overheated, but even this proved to
be a surprise, it took a long hill and merciless sport mode use to bring it to that and long before
the torque flow was spared, the flashing motor temperature gauge warned us that this was coming
this is good, solid power management design. But, no matter how you design it, eventually the battery
must run down to zero right? So when you run out, the process is not a mystery, right you've got a
port here you connect that to that, bike starts charging. That is a 750W charger which you
can mount on a wall on a pillar like this, you can leave it on the floor, what you cannot do
is put it into the machine itself because it's not a scooter so it doesn't have the space.
What Tork is working on right now is a much smaller version of this which will fit on the machine, but
that's sometime in the future. If you do have the R version of the Kratos though, you can take it to
Tork's upcoming fast charger network and that will allow you to get to 80% charge in just
about an hour. But when you use these at home, you're looking about five and a half hours to
a full charge. And that brings us neatly to the actual challenge of making an electric motorcycle
which is what should be the right range to offer the customer. A scooter can get away with 60 or 80
kilometres simply because the use cycle keeps you in the city near infrastructure and while
it's true that most motorcycles will never leave the city either, many riders will consider this
possibility and a few will try it out as well. They need enough range to not be anxious out on
the highway. Is the Kratos R's range enough? What Tork is doing is that they're phasing the rollout
of the motorcycles and one of their plans is to have fast chargers available in popular, extra
urban riding destinations, so you can top up the bike before heading back home on a Sunday ride.
Tork expects to start rolling out these machines by the end of March or April to customers
and here are the prices. The Kratos R costs roughly Rs. 1,23,000
including all the subsidies in Maharashtra and of course there is a version lower than this which
is called the Kratos, no R, which is a little bit slower and Rs. 15,000 less. For the less
money what you get is a machine that takes half a second longer to get to 40kmph
and the top speed is 5kmph lower as well. But, in the price of both machines, one portable
charger unit is included, the 750W charger, but if you get the R, you do get complimentary access
for two years to the fast charging network, which of course Tork is working on right now.
But let's leave all of that aside, because what I'm really happy to report
is that the Kratos R feels good to ride. The connection from the throttle to the rear wheel is
very very impressive, especially for a company claiming that this is a prototype,
we managed to kick this into thermal shutdown only once and at that point, it didn't
end the fun, it just slowed it down a little bit. The ride quality and the handling, both can be
improved further but they're in a good place right now. The brakes can be improved further
but it's in a good place right now, so this is a really promising electric motorcycle prototype.
So what's going to happen next of course, is you should hit the subscribe button and the
bell notification icon because this is a electric motorcycle that I cannot wait to
test in its final form and that should happen rather soon. And that's all there is to it.
Please tell us what you thought of the Kratos in the comments. Hit thumbs up if you liked the video
and do show this to your friends because that is really really really promising. But I do
have one question for you, the IDC rated range for this motorcycle is 180 and Tork Motors says what
you'll actually do of course is 120, do you think 120 kilometres is enough range for a motorcycle?
Leave us a comment, thank you so much for watching, this is PowerDrift.