Electric vehicles have reached a new and fascinating point in their development. Manufacturers are now adding little features here and there to remind people of internal combustion without actually burning gasoline. Now, motorcycles are finally joining in on the madness. Indian electric motorcycle startup Matter has launched sales of its new Aera, and it’s a weirdo. This thing is one of only a few production electric motorcycles in the entire world with a real four-speed manual transmission. Why? Because it’s fun!
This news comes to us from our friends at RideApart, and it’s a fascinating development in how manufacturers are trying to make EVs more engaging. A lot of present EV technology works on refining the driving experience. EVs are already stupid fast, crazy quiet, and amazingly high-tech. However, some folks have long felt that the EV experience sanitizes the drama of going fast. There’s no loud engine to accompany the speed and no shifting either.
Some companies are working on ways to simulate that drama while still being all-electric. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N simulates shifts as well as gives you pops and bangs like you’re really sending it in a hot gas-powered car. It even seems to give you a throttle curve that doesn’t feel EV linear. But it’s all simulated and done pretty convincingly. Meanwhile, you also have the Dodge Charger EV, which has a hilariously loud external speaker system that makes a sort of engine-ish roar that can be heard from a surprisingly far distance. The fake engine noise is also heard and even felt inside the cabin, too.
We haven’t seen much of this in the electric motorcycle world. Some electric moto companies still struggle with making their bikes charge quickly. Others struggle just to exist. Forget about making the bike sound and feel like a gas engine machine.
Indian startup company Matter is changing that. It just launched its latest motorcycle, the Aera, and it’s a wild piece of machinery. Its spec sheet isn’t particularly impressive, but there is one very interesting bullet point. It has a real honest four-speed manual transmission.
Not Vaporware
Matter was founded in January 2019 by serial entrepreneur Mohal Lalbhai. According to the company’s website, Lalbhai has a knack for gathering huge teams of engineers to make something new for India. Lalbhai says that Matter started as an idea in 2018. He believes in green energy and electrification, but noticed that locals just weren’t adopting EVs very quickly. Apparently, those people told Lalbhai that they weren’t buying electric motorcycles because the ones on the Indian market had poor reliability, lackluster performance, and the technology wasn’t impressive.
So, Lalbhai gathered a team of over 90 engineers to make electric motorcycles that people would want. Matter says it’s engineering and building all of its tech by itself, which it believes makes for overall better electric motorcycles than other companies in India, which build bikes using off-the-shelf components. Matter even takes a swipe at some of the Indian electric motorcycle industry, claiming that many makers just convert gas bikes to electric.
Matter says that the Aera actually started arriving in customer hands toward the end of 2024, but news of it hasn’t really made it over to America until now.
India’s First Electric Moto With Gears
The bike, which is still just being sold in its home market for now, is being called India’s first-ever production geared electric motorcycle.
That distinction does need a little bit of explanation. There are lots of electric motorcycles out there with manual transmissions. A common and cheap way to convert an old motorcycle to electric is to remove the engine and just connect an electric motor to the existing transmission. Lots of DIY wrenchers have electric motorcycles with manual transmissions!
But far fewer manuals exist for production bikes.
The Brammo Empulse R, an electric motorcycle dating back to the early 2010s, had a six-speed manual transmission. Sadly, Brammo fizzled out in 2017, so that’s not an option. Some Chinese companies like putting electric motors on tiny dirt bikes, but retain the original four-speed transmission. You can buy them here in America, too, just don’t expect a lot of power, good range, or a cheap price.
Meanwhile, Kymco is working on a Hyundai-like system where one of its future EVs can simulate the function and feeling of a clutch and transmission. Most electric motorcycle manufacturers have just gone with direct-drive layouts, and that has worked out fine.
That makes the Matter Aera a rare sight. Unless you’re buying one of those dirt bikes, this is one of the only production electric motorcycles with a manual transmission.
Matter says it didn’t just slap a gas bike transmission onto an electric motor like you’d find on those dirt bikes. The company claims that its four-speed transmission was designed specifically to work with the instant torque of an electric motor. This is supposed to mean no lash when you get on the throttle and a seamless shifting experience.
The rest of the motorcycle isn’t that impressive. It sports a 5 kWh battery, active liquid cooling for the motor and battery, and 77 miles to 107 miles of range on the IDC regime. In terms of power, you’re looking at 14 HP and 384 lb-ft of torque. That torque figure is nutty, but the asterisk is that it’s measured at the wheel after being multiplied by gearing, so that’s not impressive, either. All of that power is good for a sprint to 25 mph in 2.8 seconds.
It also has some goodies like a nine-axis Inertial Measurement Unit and an operating system running on Android 11. Presumably, that means you could probably root your motorcycle, which makes me giggle.
Really, the big reason to go with the Matter Aera would be for that transmission. That’s probably reason enough for some riders. It’s all of the benefits of an electric motorcycle but with a dash of how things used to be.
The price of the bike is ₹ 1,93,308, or $2,259 at current exchange rates. Sadly, don’t expect to buy one of these in America anytime soon. Matter does say that it wants to sell these things in “the Americas,” but doesn’t specify exactly which regions. Either way, it wants to sell these things in Europe and Africa first, so who knows when or if that’ll happen.
Either way, seeing this thing is sweet. Is the Aera going to move the needle? Probably not. But now I’m curious about what an electric moto with a transmission feels like.
Top photo: Matter
Does anyone besides myself think the EV fad for vehicles offering real ICE sounds is like the vegetarian companies offer real beef taste and texture, it isn’t, because it can’t attract a market on its own?
I’m fine with EVs missing their mechanical transmissions.
That is said by someone who has exclusively owned manual vehicles since the early 90s and presently has 3 manual vehicles and an EV.
Dial up the regen and it just feels like it’s always in the right gear.