Damon Motorcycles adds new head of design, chief marketing officer/VP

[advrider]

Damon Motorcycles continues to grow, adding a new Chief Marketing Officer/Vice President, and a new Head of Design.

Damon Motorcycles is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Wait, Canada? More cows than people, and nobody builds motorcycles there … do they?

Baldy actually interviewed Damon CEO Jay Giraud almost a year ago, going over the company’s plans—see that video chat below:

The company has bold performance targets for its HyperSport models, including 200-mile range on its highest-specced machines. Damon plans to use monocoque construction, a proprietary inverter, and a 6 kW charger integrated to the bike that works on Level 1 and Level 2 public charging stations, as well as 110V plugs at home. Damon says it’s also capable of 25 kW DC fast charging in less than 45 minutes. As for the electric motor itself, Damon is aiming for 200 horsepower and 200 Newton-metres of torque.

With planned specs like that, along with next-generation safety tech, the public is understandably excited about Damon’s bikes, and not just the current motorcycle-riding public. Damon actually debuted its machines at Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show in January 2020, and quickly sold out pre-orders afterwards. The company released further details on its plans last fall, and plans to start building motorcycles in 2021. At this point, the company has raised $30 million in funding and $23 million in pre-orders, and hired 50 employees.

The two latest big-name hires are Doug Penman and Michael Uhlarik. Penman is the new Chief Marketing Officer/VP; he comes in with years of experience in the automotive, tech and consumer product sectors, with companies like Toyota, Microsoft and Coca-Cola.

Uhlarik is the new Head of Design. He’s worked with a long list of motorcycle and powersports manufacturers over the years as a designer and consultant, including Bombardier, Aprilia, Yamaha, Piaggio and others. He’s also written for several moto publications over the years, including this piece on ADVrider in March of 2020.

Stay tuned on this one—Damon’s claims are very bold, but the electric motorcycle industry seems to be ready to enter a new phase in coming months, as the coronavirus pandemic hopefully recedes. If Damon can capitalize on spend-happy consumers and much-improved tech, it could be poised to play a major part in an industry breakthrough.

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