Damon, Canada’s next-generation electric motorcycle manufacturer, is putting shovels in the ground. After months of design releases and fundraising, the British Columbia-based manufacturer is starting construction on a 110,000 square-foot facility in Surrey.
It’s a massive step forward for Damon, as it helps give a timeline for production to begin. Damon first came to prominence in summer of 2019, when the company’s founders started promoting their proprietary motorcycle safety system. Using a combination of AI, electronic motorcycle controls, a sensor array, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication, Damon said its tech was able to greatly reduce the danger of motorcycle accidents.
Then, later that year, Damon announced its plans to build electric motorcycles. Along with its proprietary safety tech, Damon also announced plans for other bold ideas, like adaptive ergos to fit the bike to the rider’s need, offering a relaxed cruising position around town, or a dynamic tucked-in stance for the twisties.
Since then, we’ve seen massive fundraising announcements, and some other key moves (former CMG scribe and Cycle Canada columnist Michael Uhlarik was tapped to become Damon’s head of design). But, the company hasn’t built anything except for prototypes. It’s raised lots of money, but not delivered any bikes yet.
That should change in coming months. Damon’s new BC facility will function as both an R&D centre and a production facility, opening in late 2022. Presumably, new motorcycles will be coming off the assembly line sometime after that.
Damon has very bold plans, saying it hopes to hire hundreds of office staff and production workers in the Surrey area by 2025. That’s a lot of manpower, so presumably, Damon also plans on building a lot of motorcycles, and possibly also safety systems sold as third-party components to other manufacturers. Could this be the company that finally launches Canada as a mainstream motorcycle manufacturing country? Stay tuned.
“Damon has very bold plans, saying it hopes to hire 500 office staff and 200 production workers in the Surrey area by 2025.”
Are you sure about those numbers, that seems like a lot of paper pushers ?
I think that includes a lot of R&D staff, marketeers, etc.