Look around the globe, and there are not many electric motorcycle success stories yet. The industry is still a fledgling and far too focused on delivering TCO with rock-bottom priced mopeds and pedelecs. Everyone seems to be getting electric motorcycles wrong or not doing them altogether.
Electric motorcycles would thrive if we got the enthusiasts on our side. Motorcycles have to be lightweight and entertaining…
…that’s what Auper is working on.
We first found Auper many months back and were enamored by the exciting street-naked motorcycle. Finally, last week, we managed to sit down with Silvio Rotilli, the CEO of Auper, to understand where they are with the development of the motorcycle and their future plans.
InsightEV: Hey, thanks so much, Silvio, for giving us the opportunity to talk to you. We’ve been following Auper Motorcycles for quite some time now. I think the last time we saw it was about a year ago on your website, and the design looked fantastic. Where are you currently with the design and development of the motorcycle? What stage are you at?
Silvio Rotilli: Yeah, thanks. We started the company about four years ago. For a while, we were operating under the radar for a few reasons. From the beginning, we focused on developing the key technologies in-house—especially the critical components to our vision.
Right now, we’ve already built several bikes that have been tested extensively over the past few years. We’ve tested them in Brazil and Canada, and now we’re preparing to start production in Brazil this year. In fact, we’re moving into our manufacturing facility next month.
InsightEV: Just to confirm, you’re starting manufacturing next month?
Silvio: Yes, exactly. The plan is to begin deliveries later this year. We’ll start on a smaller scale with a Founders Edition and a few other special editions, then transition into larger-scale production toward the end of the year or early next year.
InsightEV: Have you started taking orders yet? And how has the market responded so far?
Silvio: Yes, we’ve just started reservations this week. Our approach has been to wait until everything is correctly set up—suppliers, manufacturing, and logistics—before announcing anything. And this isn’t exactly a pre-order, it’s a reservation. It allows customers to hold their place in line to purchase the motorcycle once it becomes available to order. That’s the process we’re moving forward with right now.
So far, the bike has been extremely well received, and the demand is pretty high on both sides from the B2C and the B2B market, for fleets and last-mile deliveries in Brazil.
InsightEV: I remember seeing your LinkedIn post a couple of days ago where you mentioned the importance of building a good product, not just making a cheaper motorcycle, but something more meaningful. I completely agree with that.
But shifting focus a bit, how receptive do you think the Brazilian market is right now to, say, a sport or performance-oriented electric motorcycle?
Silvio: Yeah, the Brazilian market is actually quite different. It’s the fifth-largest motorcycle market in the world, and it’s growing rapidly. But the needs here are unique compared to other regions.
In Brazil, the smallest engine class that’s commonly used is around 160cc—that’s what people need to hit highway speeds, at least. There’s also an expectation of higher quality because vehicles here are often seen as an investment. Motorcycles cost significantly more than in other markets, and because of the country’s diverse terrain and road conditions, there’s a real need for performance.
What we’ve seen so far is that many of the electric motorcycles introduced here haven’t been able to meet those needs—whether due to low-quality components or poor performance. For example, riders here might travel 200 to 300 kilometers a day for deliveries. It’s an entirely different use case.
Right now, there’s a big gap in the EV market. On one end, you have low-cost, entry-level electric motorcycles with limited speed and power. On the other hand, you have premium, high-performance electric bikes targeted at the North American or European markets. But in the middle—something highway-capable, reliable, and more accessible—there’s very little. That’s the gap we’re aiming to fill.
At the same time, we’re working to build something genuinely inspiring—a product with great range, strong reliability, minimal maintenance, and compatibility with the growing charging infrastructure. We’re focused on creating a future-ready motorcycle that doesn’t just look good but performs where it matters.
InsightEV: Let’s talk more specifically about the motorcycle itself. Can you share the key specs—what kind of battery are you using, and what systems are onboard? Let’s get into some of the technical details.
Silvio: Absolutely. So, the first model we’re launching is a naked city commuter—designed specifically for urban use. The motor we’re using delivers a peak power of 48 kW. We’re using an internal permanent magnet motor. Its nominal power is 13 kW, but we’re currently getting around 612 Nm of torque at the wheel. The motor produces 120 Nm and is centrally mounted—not a hub motor. This setup allows for better heat dissipation, which is critical given Brazil’s challenging road and climate conditions. It also makes the system much more reliable under stress, so we’ve included a proper transmission to handle that.
All of the core technologies—the motor, inverter, powertrain, battery pack, battery management system (BMS), and vehicle control unit (VCU)—were developed entirely in-house by Auper. That’s also why this has been a four-year journey.
We believe that in order to truly disrupt an industry, you have to make bold decisions. You can’t rely on third-party suppliers to share your vision or match your commitment to quality and innovation. From the start, our focus has been on building something safer and more secure. That’s been a personal priority for me, having ridden motorcycles my whole life in Brazil. Safety and reliability have always been concerns, and we wanted to address those directly through the design of our bike.
At the core of the company, we knew we had to build everything in-house to make our vision a reality. So, all the key components—like the battery management system, the battery pack, and the vehicle control unit—were designed and assembled by us at Auper.
The vehicle control unit is built on a centralized architecture, and that’s really where much of our innovation happens.
In terms of performance:
The top speed of the standard model with the extended battery is 150 km/h.
For the Founders Edition, we’re pushing that to 170 km/h.
Acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is about 4.2 seconds with the extended battery.
On the Founders Edition, it’s just under 4 seconds.
As for charging, we’ve opted not to use swappable batteries. Instead, we focused on integrating fast-charging technology. The bike uses a Level 2 charging port, and both the battery pack and onboard charger were designed with quick turnaround charging in mind.
So we have high-power onboard charging, where we can charge the battery from 0 to 80% in about half an hour right now.
InsightEV: Okay. 0-80% in half an hour. How big is the pack?
Silvio: The base model is about 6.05kWh, and the extended version is 9.07kWh.
InsightEV: Well, that’s pretty decent. 48kW is very exciting. It’s quite a high power output, and 150 kph and 170 kph make an entertaining motorcycle.
Silvio: Yeah.
Insight EV: How much is the weight of the motorcycle?
Silvio: So, the bike right now weighs about 140 kilos. It’s pretty lightweight. The major weight is the battery,
InsightEV: That’s awesome.
Silvio: As you can imagine, for the weight distribution, we focused on keeping the center of mass as low to the ground as possible. That’s essential not only for rideability but also for safety—especially when braking or delivering torque to the wheel. Keeping things low helps with cornering stability, too.
The bike’s weight distribution is excellent, allowing for very strong braking and fast acceleration—without the bike lifting the front wheel. Of course, we also have anti-wheelie control and related safety features, but the setup supports balanced performance even at a hardware level.
Ultimately, power is essential, but for us, the real goal is to build something inspiring. We don’t believe the shift to electric will happen just because of sustainability.
What we want to do is give people a reason to switch to electric because it’s simply the best product they can buy at that price point. Our pricing is very aggressive. When people test the motorcycle—which many already have—their reaction is always about how different the experience is from riding a gas bike. It’s not just about being cleaner or quieter—it’s more fun, more responsive, and more refined.
That’s what will drive the shift to electric: a better riding experience.
InsightEV: So you’re actually targeting people who are used to riding exciting, entertaining ICE motorcycles?
Silvio: Not just that. At the price point we’re going for, we’re also targeting people who currently ride 300cc motorcycles—and even 160cc bikes in the case of our base model.
When you’re going up against the big OEMs, you need to deliver something that’s not only better in terms of performance but also more exciting and enjoyable to ride.
InsightEV: Absolutely.
Silvio: I want to do the switch, especially if you’re a new company, right? There’s a lot that you need to build as a brand. If you don’t make something that people can make the switch to easily, I think that you have already started failing as a company. So we are competing with the 600cc right when you see the specs of the bike, and in a drag race, we are beating the 600cc on acceleration. Of course, not on top speed, because this is a city commuter. 150 kph is pretty good already.
InsightEV: Exactly. Yes, it is.
Silvio: But we want to build this mid-performance market right. This is the target for us. Not the high performance.
InsightEV: Coming back to the motor—you mentioned it’s 13 kW nominal and 48 kW peak, correct? Is it a liquid-cooled motor?
Silvio: No, it’s entirely air-cooled. That was a deliberate decision we made for the sake of simplicity. The motor, inverter, and battery pack are all air-cooled. We engineered specific thermal channels and airflow pathways into the design to ensure effective heat dissipation.
InsightEV: So you’ve built in airflow channels to help cool the system more efficiently?
Silvio: Exactly. These help extract heat, especially under high loads. We designed the system so that it can maintain performance without issues even at highway speeds. Of course, liquid cooling would perform better during track days or continuous high-power bursts, but we’ve never had overheating problems for urban commuting.
InsightEV: You mentioned earlier that you designed the motor, motor controller, BMS, and battery pack in-house.
Silvio: Yes, all developed by our team at Auper.
InsightEV: What about the battery pack? Does it use cylindrical cells?
Silvio: Yes, we use 21700 cylindrical cells. We opted for high-power cells with low internal resistance so we could meet the current demands of the motor in a compact format.
InsightEV: You’d need around 4C discharge for that kind of peak power, right?
Silvio: Exactly—about 4C for short bursts. That’s why we needed high-power cells. These also support fast charging, another big design focus for us.
InsightEV: I saw the motorcycle on your website, and it looks fantastic. Has the design changed much from what’s shown there?
Silvio: The version on the website is very close to the production model. Of course, some things changed during development—mainly for manufacturing purposes. But in terms of the design, we’re proud of its appearance, so we kept changes minimal. Any changes were driven by functionality or manufacturability, but we stayed true to the original design intent.
InsightEV: It’s a great-looking motorcycle. Who did the styling?
Silvio: I’m lucky—we have a really strong founding team at Auper. There are four of us: two Brazilians and two Americans.
David is our designer and a mechanical engineer. He’s worked with companies like Sony, Bill Gates’s ventures, Caterpillar, and Mahindra. He handled the bike’s mechanical design, chassis dynamics, and surface styling.
I’m an electrical engineer with a PhD in motor control and EV architecture.
Alan, another co-founder, also comes from the aerospace and automotive sectors. He and I studied electrical engineering together in Brazil back in 2006.
Ali Emadi, our fourth co-founder, was our professor at McMaster University in Canada, where we did our Ph.D(s).
InsightEV: Ah, that explains a lot!
Silvio: Yeah, we’re a very engineering-heavy founding team. We studied at McMaster, which has one of the world’s largest electrification research groups—about 350 engineers. That gave us access to incredible talent and infrastructure, which helped us take on such an ambitious project from scratch.
InsightEV: So how big is your team now?
Silvio: We’re still a lean team—about 30 people. From the beginning, we’ve focused on hiring highly skilled, talented individuals. Initially, the founding team did most of the development—the VCU, inverter, BMS, and battery pack were all built by just three of us.
InsightEV: And now you’re a team of 30?
Silvio: Yes. We’re spread across Brazil, Canada, and the US. Our largest team is now in Brazil, but we maintain an engineering base in Canada, and David is based in the US as our Chief Design Officer.
InsightEV: You mentioned earlier that Canada offers unique advantages. What kind?
Silvio: Sure. I moved to Canada in 2017 for my PhD, and Alan was already here. We both did undergrad in Brazil and then reconnected in Canada. The labs and infrastructure here (Canada) are world-class—there have been hundreds of millions invested in electrification R&D. The talent pool is excellent, and the Canadian government has been very supportive of our work. So, even though Brazil is our core market, we maintain a strong presence in Canada because of those roots and our support system.
InsightEV: Got it. How has the project been funded so far? Did you raise capital?
Silvio: Yes, as you can imagine, the early stages were challenging. We bootstrapped for the first three years, putting in our own investment. During that time, we developed the full motorcycle and all the in-house tech.
At the start of last year, we raised our first pre-seed round. That allowed us to move fast—complete certifications and regulations in Brazil, build multiple test bikes, and get them into people’s hands.
Now, we’re preparing for our next funding round, which will support full-scale manufacturing and cash flow as we go to market.
InsightEV: And production is planned in Brazil?
Silvio: Yes, full production is in Brazil. Most of the components are manufactured locally. The only exceptions are things that aren’t produced in Brazil—like battery cells, certain electronic components, or motor rotors requiring rare earth magnets. But overall, we’re trying to localize as much as possible for better supply chain control and just-in-time operations.
InsightEV: So Brazil is the primary market, but what comes after?
Silvio: Brazil is our launchpad. I have a deep personal connection with the country—I’ve been riding motorcycles my entire life there. My mom used to take my brother and me to school on a scooter. We know the challenges motorcyclists face in Brazil and want to solve them.
That said, we’re setting up Auper to be a global company. After Brazil, we’ll expand into Latin America, Europe, and eventually North America. But Brazil is our foundation.
InsightEV: With 48 kW of peak power and a 150 km/h top speed, your motorcycle stands out. There aren’t many electric motorcycles in production offering that kind of performance—at least not at an accessible price.
Silvio: Exactly. Performance is critical—especially in Brazil, where you need a bike that can easily maintain highway speeds of 120–130 kph. Plus, Brazil’s geography means you’re often dealing with steep hills and challenging terrain. If your motor isn’t powerful enough, it’ll overheat quickly.
So our design was built around real-world use cases in Brazil—and those needs also translate well into other Latin American markets.
This is where we started—and it’s much harder, right? As you mentioned, not many companies attempt this because you have to design everything from the ground up to keep costs low while still delivering strong performance.
What really enabled us to do this was the decision to develop everything internally. That allowed us to optimize the system specifically for our needs, which is hard to achieve if you’re relying on multiple suppliers. It’s challenging to find a high-power inverter, a capable motor, or a VCU that handles the entire vehicle. That’s what took us the most time—why we stayed under the radar for so long. We needed to be confident that we could build at scale, keep costs down, and still hit the performance targets necessary for markets like Brazil and the rest of Latin America.
InsightEV: You mentioned the motor delivers 120 Nm and 612 Nm at the wheel. So, is this a two-stage reduction?
Silvio: No, it’s a single-stage reduction. For the extended version, we use a 5.1:1 reduction ratio, which gives us around 612 Nm at the wheel. It’s a direct belt-driven system. The motor sits at the swingarm’s pivot point, so we don’t need a tensioner for the belt.
We chose a belt drive not only for lower maintenance but also for noise reduction. Once you remove the gas engine, the chain becomes the noisiest part of the bike. Belts are quieter and more reliable, especially with the kind of torque we’re dealing with. They’re a great fit for this application.
InsightEV: I totally agree. Chains are loud once the engine’s gone. Belts make so much more sense for electric bikes.
Silvio: Yeah. Right now is a really exciting phase for the company. We’ve passed many of the early hurdles—developing the tech from scratch, building the first prototypes with a small team, raising our first round, and navigating certification and regulation. That part was especially tough—more than we anticipated.
We’re now seeing our bikes on the road, doing extensive testing with pro riders, dyno tests, track days, and real-world use in everything from poor road conditions to snow in Canada. We’re also stress-testing in the heat—Brazilian summer days hitting 43–44°C and over 60°C on track surfaces. It’s demanding but incredibly rewarding.
Seeing people test the bike for the first time—and come back laughing with excitement—that reaction is hard to describe. It’s what keeps us going.
InsightEV: We’re really excited to see the launch. You mentioned it’s coming to market in the next few months.
Silvio: Yes, that’s the plan.
InsightEV: Great. We’ll be keeping an eye out for it. Thank you so much for your time.
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