British electric motorcycle startup Arc secures funding from Jaguar Land Rover, shows its first £90,000 vehicle

The UK-based startup Arc has landed an unspecified amount in funding from InMotion Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s venture capital fund, and Mercia Fund Managers. The company has also unveiled its first product — a £90,000 electric motorcycle dubbed Vector. The vehicle comes together with a helmet that doubles as a heads-up display (HUD) and a bespoke jacket with haptic feedback.

“Our aim has always been to bring technology, performance and safety together to create an entirely new two-wheeled experience,” said Mark Truman, the founder and CEO of Arc who also used to work at Jaguar Land Rover. “Vector isn’t just a motorbike; it’s the world’s first fully-electric café racer, it’s an innovative heads-up display helmet and it’s a sensory riding suit – all working in unison to create an experience package like no other. We’re delighted to get the support of InMotion for this exciting launch phase. The team shares our vision and we’re looking forward to working together and creating more groundbreaking products.”

The futuristic-looking motorcycle, which was unveiled on November 6th at the Milan Motorcycle Show, takes 3.1 seconds to go from 0 to 96 km/h and has a maximum speed of 193 km/h. The Zenith helmet that comes with it connects to the vehicle and projects speedometer, sat-nav, and ancillary graphics on the visor. In addition to that, the rider can see what's behind them thanks to a rear-view camera.

The bespoke jacket, which protects the rider, features haptic amplifiers — not unlike those built in today's smartphones to give vibration notifications. It has three modes of operating: in the urban mode, the focus is on safety, so the jacket will alert the rider of potential hazards like vehicles entering their blind spot; in the sports mode, the feedback will tell the rider how close they are to the limits of the motorcycle's capabilities; the euphoric mode allows playing music through the haptic feedback actuators, simulating a very powerful bass that makes listener's hair stand on end.