Real Motors’ Project Ares brings a cyberpunk look to electric bikes

The design draws on the visual worlds of Star Wars and Wipeout, but the source describes the result as its own rather than derivative. Project Ares also stands apart from the retrofuturist Maeving RM2 and minimalist BMW CE 02: removing the engine and fuel tank gives electric motorcycle designers greater freedom, though few designs have made as strong an impression on the reviewer.

Real Motors began with a challenge between CEO and cofounder Trent Dingman and cofounder Michael Feng, the company’s design engineer. Dingman said they wanted to “build the coolest possible thing, the best design, and show people what we can do.” Project Ares is the first outcome of that ambition, designed and built in Greenville, South Carolina, in the region known as the battery belt.

The area is also home to established and developing electric-vehicle players, including BMW, Scout Motors, Volvo and Redwood Materials. The white motorcycle shown in early images is a prototype substantially smaller than Prototype 04, the version the reviewer rode. That bike is nicknamed “Ghost” for its distinctive fairing.