Stark Future, the folks behind the Varg MX, EX, and the newly introduced SM supermoto, are on a tear. The brand's been chalking up victory after victory, getting pretty damn profitable as fast as it has, and has ingratiated itself with the hearts and minds of once die-hard gasoline-swilling motorcyclists everywhere.
It's currently one of RideApart's favorite platforms, having taken us on far-flung trips into the woods on multiple occasions, as well as my own children around our backyard motocross track countless times. And the electric dirt bike-based angle of all of the brand's products makes a ton of sense given the market conditions and adoptions right now.
Small, electric dirt bikes are the way to go, in the United States especially, as infrastructure and battery technology are still limiting factors to regular EV motorcycles.
But with growth, and board members and investors, there's always the looming threat of "What's next?" What's next for the brand that's achieved what it has in such short order? How do you conquer the rest of the market? How do you conquer the world? Yeah, you did this for me now. But what are you going to do for me later? So what's in Stark's roadmap?
Better batteries, fast as hell charging times, and an adventure bike, a cafe racer, a scooter to take to Asia, and most interestingly, a possible ATV entry.
The bikes and ATV are called the Alg (moose in Swedish), the Lo (lynx), the Gimli scooter/last-mile transport, and the aforementioned ATV, which, based on the video above, doesn't yet have a name. All of which represent a drastic departure from what Stark's been doing, and where it's been operating, as on-road electric motorcycles are incredibly hard to pull off, both due to lackluster demand and infrastructure setbacks. They also tend to be expensive.
But Stark's CEO, Anton Wass, explains that the goals with the Alg adventure motorcycle, and the Lo cafe racer, is for them to have more power, less weight, and be able to charge faster than you can stop and have a quick coffee before wanting to get back out on the road. That would certainly change the game, as presently, it takes hours to charge an EV. How Stark will do that is anyone's guess, but you'd have to assume that Stark's plans include some sort of ultra-fast chargers along with something akin to Porsche's 800V system, i.e. a battery platform that can take speedy dumps of full power to recharge the battery.
What we do know is that the Alg and Lo are next up on the brand's roadmap, and I have a sneaking suspicion that we might see something real and tangible in the next month or so with EICMA getting so close. Plus, the video basically spoils the outlines of the bikes, so they have to be pretty close to production ready.
But the Gimli scooter and the ATV are just as interesting, as the former speaks to the volume play Stark's going after, and the ATV makes the same sense as why the Varg's work.
Let's first talk about the Gimli, as the vast majority of the world use some form of two-wheeled transportation for their daily lives. China, Japan, and India are massive two-wheeled markets, as are the Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines. And while Honda and Bajaj and a host of others are dominant players in those locales, those company's EV offerings aren't as advanced as Starks, which could be the gamechanger the brand is seeking to showcase. But even if they only steal a small percentage of that market, it'd be an exponentially bigger market than all of its current lineup. Think Honda Civic margins versus Acura's NSX supercar.
And like I said, the ATV makes a ton of sense in the same way that the Varg iterations make sense. Why? Because first and foremost, range and charging aren't as important when you're shredding a track or short trail. You're more likely to get tired faster than you can disperse the energy of the machine. And second, with so many tracks and off-road parks closing, with many citing noise issues as more and more housing developments encroach on said tracks, a silent EV lets you go to all hours of the evening.
It'd also likely take the least amount of design time, as you could just drop a Varg motor and battery into an ATV chassis and be done with it. Stark probably isn't going to do that, but you could imagine how all the engineering it's already done would translate.
We don't, however, have a timetable on those two, as the video states they're still in the "research" phase, but further along than that. Hopefully, we'll know more soon or see some renderings, but based on the video and Wass' statements, it looks like Stark's planning on taking over the world.
