At Intermot, KTM unveiled its newest addition to the electric line-up, the third member of the Freeride E family, the E-SM, with SM obviously standing for “supermoto”. Adding to the existing two Freeride E models, SX and XC, the SM completes a very nifty offer for those who want to go green, but stay orange, if you catch my drift.
The platform is the same, but the KTM Freeride E-SM is so much more than an enduro bike with street wheels. This bike can be used as both a fun machine for fast city slicing and for commuting as well, as it blends the high-performance, road worthiness and agility of a supermotard with the do-it-all capabilities of a dual-purpose bike and the economical per-mile green efficiency of electric bikes.
Freeride E-SM is powered by a 300V battery which feeds a brushless permanent magnet motor which can reach a peak power of 21.4 hp (16 kW), but which is rated around 15 hp. The torque of this motor is 31 Nm (22.8 lb-ft), which is on par with that of many other small-to-middleweight bikes, such as the Honda CBR500R, which is great because of at least two reasons. First of all, the KTM Freeride E-SM deploys all the torque from the get-go, and then it’s the 110kg (243 lb) weight which also makes a huge difference.
These figures also make the 2015 KTM Freeride E-SM learner-legal, meaning that beginner bikers can also ride it legally and start getting used to the two-wheeled world. Compared to the other two electric Freeride bikes, the E-SM has longer upper gears, smaller, stickier asphalt-focused wheels and a tweaked suspension. According to KTM, the 2015 Freeride E-SM can provide an hour of fun per full battery, and can reach speeds of 80 km/h (50 mph), with quick-charging its 2.6 kWh lithium-ion to 80% only taking 50 minutes.
However, if we are to believe visordown, the 2015 KTM Freeride E-SM will not be exactly an easy-to-get bike, as the price rumored for the UK is really brutal: £10,299, which is €13,200 or $16,690. If you can understand a bit of German, here’s a interview the German magazine 1000ps did at 2014 Intermot with KTM.
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