Damon Motorcycles Captures Elusive Millennial Market
Damon two new Hypersport Premier Motorcycles: Arctic Sun (left) and Midnight Sun (right). Photo credit: Damon
Damon Motorcycles is ushering in a new era of motorcycling for the next-generation of riders, specifically the elusive millennial market. The company has pre-sold several hundred Hypersport HS and Premier models to millennials, who make up half of the company’s preorders. Damon continues to ride a wave of momentum following the successful unveiling of its flagship Hypersport motorcycle at CES 2020. The company has raised an additional $3M in funding, acquired the IP portfolio of Mission Motors, and today announced limited preorder availability of two new Hypersport Premier motorcycles: Arctic Sun and Midnight Sun.
“The technologies we have developed at Damon have been a huge hit,” said Jay Giraud, co-founder and CEO, Damon Motorcycles. “We launched the Hypersport to show that interest in motorcycling is stronger than ever but in need of a complete overhaul to address the unmet needs of millennials, who have driven a 3X growth in used motorcycle purchases since 2007. With our preorder volume growing daily, we now know our unique features like CoPilot and Shift, combined with Hypersport’s groundbreaking electric performance, are what this generation of motorcyclists want.”
The Hypersport represents the first viable solution to bring millennials into motorcycling in a meaningful way. Damon’s preorder data has presented some surprising insights: many of its customers prefer to use motorcycles as their primary transportation as a means to avoid congestion and reduce commute times or due to a lack of available parking spots in modern condos. Some state they used to ride but quit due to safety concerns, while others state they were not willing to consider motorcycling until now. Unlike all other OEM’s, Damon is attracting an entirely new customer segment to motorcycling.
With the growing backlog of interest for the sold out Hypersport Premier Founder’s Edition, Damon created a limited run of two new Hypersport Premier offerings: Arctic Sun (white-gold) and Midnight Sun (black-gold). All Hypersport models deliver well over 200hp and 200nm of torque starting at zero rpm, a top speed of 200 mph, a range of more than 200 highway miles per charge, and are outfitted with CoPilot
To accelerate development, Damon recently acquired the IP portfolio of Mission Motors, developer of high-density EV powertrains. This includes Mission Motors’ PM200 electric motor, Mission Inverter and Skyline Telematics. The acquisition provides Damon with proven, cutting-edge technology that shattered the AMA electric land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats and also set records at Laguna Seca in 2011, the 1/4 mile drag strip at Sonoma Raceway in 2012, and at the Isle of Mann TT Zero race in 2014.
“The purchase of the Mission Motors IP will add to Damon’s capability to build the highest performance drive trains in motorcycling,” said Derek Dorresteyn, COO, Damon Motorcycles. “Mission Motors was a technical leader and we are happy that some of that competitive DNA has passed into the Damon Hypersport. We intend to improve upon it considerably to take motorcycling into an entirely new level of performance. ”
Damon is now entering advanced development and test validation phase of its full stack electric vehicle and cloud computing platform. With an embedded 4G connection, road and traffic data collected from each Hypersport will allow the company to remotely update the onboard computers, increasing the motorcycle’s ability to detect vehicles with every mile ridden. The company aims to be production-ready late next year.