LiveWire-based Kymco RevoNEX and SuperNEX

[Hugh Janus]

Kymco has totally changed direction with its RevoNEX and SuperNEX concepts after partnering with LiveWire. It will now build the electric motorcycles on LiveWire’s Arrow platform. (Kymco/)

Kymco has been planning to launch a pair of large electric bikes for years—having originally shown its SuperNEX electric sportbike at the 2018 EICMA show in Milan. Finally the project is coming close to fruition with some huge changes from the original design.

Originally, Kymco wanted to go it alone with its electric motorcycle project, showing the SuperNEX in 2018 and following it with the naked RevoNEX roadster concept in 2019. Both were intended to use a bespoke electric platform with the unusual inclusion of a conventional manual transmission and clutch to add another layer of rider involvement, and Kymco wanted to set up a factory in Italy to manufacture them.

The new patent illustrations clearly show that the new generation of Kymco electrics are based on LiveWire’s Arrow platform. (Kymco/)

That original plan has now fallen by the wayside, and in 2022 Kymco showed second-generation concept bikes carrying the same RevoNEX and SuperNEX names but looking very different, having inked a deal with Harley-Davidson-owned LiveWire to codevelop the upcoming LiveWire S3 models. The S3 will use a lower-performance, lower-cost derivative of the same “Arrow” modular platform that underpins the existing LiveWire S2 Del Mar and Mulholland machines and it’s now increasingly clear that the RevoNEX and SuperNEX will also be based on LiveWire components.

Earlier this year Kymco filed a patent application showing the LiveWire Arrow platform under the silhouette of the original, 2019-shaped version of the RevoNEX. Now it’s added a further patent, but one that relates directly to the bike’s bodywork and shows the shape of the 2022 RevoNEX concept on top of a LiveWire chassis and powertrain.

LiveWire’s S2 Mulholland. (LiveWire/)

The 2022 RevoNEX and SuperNEX concepts were so covered in bodywork that it’s impossible to see their frames or power units, but it looks very much like they actually hid LiveWire S2 parts under the skin. The new patent shows how perfectly the LiveWire Arrow chassis, battery, and motor fit underneath the RevoNEX’s outline, notably the sloping forward edge of the lower fairing, behind the front wheel, which the patent makes clear is sculpted tightly around the LiveWire’s electronics box.

What’s particularly interesting about the new patent application is that it’s not about the bike’s electric powertrain but specifically relates to an element of its bodywork—namely the flap that covers the charging socket, just below the rider’s seat on the right-hand side. It shows a design that’s slightly reworked compared to the 2022 concept, with a more practical shape and one that suggests the concept bike’s distinctive bodywork, which featured a second, outer layer covered in hexagonal holes like a honeycomb, will be simplified for production.

The patent seen here deals with the charging port cover which conceals a Type 2 AC charging socket. (Kymco/)

The charging port cover itself is set to be mounted on a parallelogram linkage, allowing it to swing forward to expose the port but without sticking out too far when it’s open. A second cover underneath it flips open conventionally to expose a Type 2 AC charging socket. Type 2 chargers operate at 3.7kW or 7kW on single-phase AC, or as much as 22kW when connected to three-phase infrastructure. The port shown on the patent doesn’t appear to have any provision for rapid DC charging.

Although the patent drawing shows the RevoNEX’s naked outline, it’s worth noting that it features the low, dropped bars of the SuperNEX faired machine, hinting that both models are still under development.

It’s not clear how much the LiveWire S3 models, which are also based on the S2′s Arrow platform (but downscaled and developed in partnership with Kymco), will differ from the S2 in terms of performance and range. On announcing the platform, and the Kymco deal (including a 4 percent stake in LiveWire), in 2021, LiveWire said the S3 will be the basis of a range of lightweight two-wheelers, suggesting it will feature smaller batteries and motors than the S2. Whether the RevoNEX and SuperNEX will feature the S2 or S3 platforms is also not clear yet. The images here show something that looks identical to the S2, but we can’t rule out the possibility that the S3 chassis will be visually the same as the S2.

Kymco earlier filed patents showing its intention to create a simulated gearbox with conventional appearing shift and clutch levers. (Kymco/)

One concept that Kymco is pursuing and seems likely to differentiate its LiveWire-based bikes from LiveWire’s own machines is the idea of a manual transmission. Rather than the physical multi-ratio gearbox that was used on the original 2018 and 2019 concept bikes, the latest idea is to use a simulated manual transmission. There’s still a clutch lever and a foot-operated shifter, but they’re both connected to the bike’s computer system rather than anything mechanical. With the right programming, operating the clutch and shifter will be able to mimic the behavior of a conventional gearbox by altering power delivery depending on the “‘gear” that’s selected and connecting or disconnecting drive when the faux clutch lever is operated. The result promises to be a greater level of rider interaction and more control, but without the weight or complexity of a real clutch and gearbox.

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