Eicher Motors to invest €50 million in Spain’s Stark India’s Eicher Motors, the parent firm of Royal Enfield, will invest €50 million or over Rs 440 crore in Spain-based electric motorcycles manufacturer Stark Future, according to a joint statement issued on December 29.

Eicher will acquire a stake of 10.35 percent in Stark in lieu of the investment, the release added. Join Our Telegram Channel

“This investment will pave the way for a long term partnership in collaborative research and development in electric motorcycles, technology sharing, technical licensing, and manufacturing,” it said.

Eicher, as part of the collaboration, will also nominate a director on the board of Stark.

Stark, which is eyeing to carve its space in the European e-motorcycle market, had recently launched its first high performance electric motocross bike, the Stark VARG.

“It has been a short, intense and incredible journey for us so far but our link with Royal Enfield and what lies in store in the coming years are brilliant signs for the future,” Stark founder and chief executive officer Anton Wass said.

Eichers’ Managing Director Siddharth Lal, while commenting on the collaboration, said leisure motorcycles do not easily lend themselves to EV technology at this stage, due to challenges like the battery range, packaging, weight and cost. Join Our Instagram Channel

But Stark “has been able to understand and harness the potential of EV technology by dramatically outperforming ICE offerings, without compromising on range, weight, packaging and cost”, he added.

Royal Enfield’s CEO B Govindarajan said the company sees “immense synergies” in the partnership with Stark.

“While they are thought leaders in EV technology, particularly in light-weight components and innovative solutions, we at Royal Enfield will draw on these capabilities for developing our EV platforms and will also plan to share some EV platforms in the future,” he noted.