Electric vehicles have given an avenue for Indian start-ups to showcase their engineering capabilities on a clean sheet of paper. Orxa Energies (pronounced ‘Orha’) was founded in 2015 and has developed the Mantis over the years, which went through multiple iterations.
In 2022, the Orxa Mantis completed a 13,510km test ride called the ‘The Electric Bharatmala’, where riders rode through 20 States and two Union Territories around India in 54 days.
Orxa mentions the Mantis is based on three philosophies, ’Motorcycling Essence’, ‘Form is Function’, and ‘Engineering is Art’.
The Mantis’s headlamps emulate the eyes of the praying mantis insect. The body is styled to look athletic all around. The battery pack, which is mounted in the chassis has fins on the housing, possibly for air cooling. Feeding the rider information about the Mantis is a 5-inch colour TFT dashboard. The Mantis is offered in two colours, ‘Urban Black’ and ‘Jungle Grey’.
TheMantis uses a fully cast Aerospace Aluminium Frame and weighs 182kg, the lightest electric motorcycle in its segment.
Underpinning this frame are 41mm telescopic forks in the front and a Hydraulic mono-shock with adjustable preload in the rear. The suspension holds onto 17-inch wheels at the front and rear. The Mantis has a 320mm disc brake with a four-piston fixed calliper in the front, and a 230mm disc brake with a single-piston floating calliper at the rear. The Mantis has a 1,450mm wheelbase and a seat height of 815mm.
In terms of features, the Mantis gets regenerative braking, side stand sensor and Bluetooth connectivity. Orxa has developed a Mantis App for navigation, phone notifications, and ride analytics. The motorcycle will also have saddle boxes as an option, capable of holding roughly 75 litres together.
The motorcycle houses a 9kW battery pack that powers a high power density liquid-cooled BLDC motor, capable of producing 27.87PS and 93Nm. This enables the Mantis to hit a top speed of 135kmph and achieve 0-100kmph acceleration in 8.9 seconds.
The Mantis comes with a 1.3kW standard charger included with the bike, which takes five hours to charge the Mantis from zero to 80 percent. There is a 3.3kW ‘blitz’ charger available as an option too, which can charge the motorcycle from zero to 80 percent in two and a half hours. This battery pack gives the Mantis a range of 221km (IDC estimation).
The battery pack will also have a recycling process Through Nunam’s end-of-life battery buyback, to help reduce the cost of the Mantis by 40 percent. Orxa Energies has tied up with companies like Nunam, Bolt and Spare It. Bolt will help in EV charging infrastructure, and Spare It will help with motorcycle servicing.
The motorcycle is priced at Rs 3.60 lakh rupees ex-showroom, roughly 20 thousand rupees less than the Ultraviolette F77 but how does it fare against its primary rival? Stay tuned for our first ride review. The Mantis will be released in batches with the first batch starting delivery in April 2024 in Bengaluru. Roll-out of the next batch will happen in July 2024.
