the buttonless novus electric motorcycle is a minimalist's dream

german electric motorcycle company novus presents their debut model at CES 2019 – an incredibly light and incredibly minimal, hollow-bodied city commuter. sat somewhere between an e-bike and a performance motorcycle, the novus is the co-creation of industrial designers, rené renger and marcus weidig, who shared ambitions to create a new type of bike.

images courtesy of novus

the first thing that stands out about the novus is that there’s not much of it. most of the bike’s features are embedded into the body of the bike with both head and tail integrated into the body to create a smooth straight line from rear to cockpit. the rear suspension, which employs an air damper, too is embedded into the frame, as is the start button, which you activate by pushing down on the seat leather where the fuel tank should be.

the electric bike is powered by a 14kW brushless motor, located above the rear wheel. weighing in at a very light 85 lbs (38.5 kg), the novus has a 14-peak-kilowatt (18.7 horsepower) rear hub drive putting out a claimed 200 Nm (147.5 lb-ft) of torque. the current charge time is around an hour for a 0-80 percent top-up.

novus claims that the bike has a top speed of 60 mph / 100 kph and a range of 100km. the battery, which the company has yet to specify, sits in the base of the frame. the hand-built e-bike is still in its prototype stage, and the pair expect initial production models will be similarly constructed, for a heavy cost of $35,000 or possibly even more.