June 28, 2022 |  By Evan Williams

With 20 horses but the torque of a 900cc street bike, Zapp’s i300 promises a zippy urban commute.

The Zapp i300 is an electric motorcycle meant to offer gas-bike levels of performance but the comfort of a step-through scooter.

Don’t call it a moped; this one is designed for the urban rider in a hurry. It just made its debut at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Without batteries installed, the exoskeleton alloy architecture of the i300 means a dry weight of just 202 pounds. Fit the two battery packs, and you’re still looking at a hair under 230 pounds, very light for anything with this level of power and performance.

The electric motor is a British design like the rest of the i300, and it generates a peak of 20 horsepower. Zapp claims a slightly absurd 432 pound-feet of torque for the bike. The number makes sense if you keep reading to see that it’s at the rear wheel, not at the motor.

Torque at the motor, how we’d normally measure it, is still 63 pound-feet. It’s a big figure — so we’re wondering, why the marketing fluff? — and gives the bike slightly less power than a 250cc gas engine but torque in the range of something around 900 ccs.

Zapp says the motor can shoot the bike to 30 mph in just 2.2 seconds and to 60 in 4.8. Its limited top speed is that same 60 mph, a regulatory limit in Europe to keep licensing affordable.

Each i300 gets two small (13-pound) battery packs that can be swapped out for charging. With both in place, the i300 has an estimated range of around 37 miles. Using a 110V power plug, a 20-80% charge takes 40 minutes.

The rear suspension is a single-sided swing arm. The pushrod rear suspension is adjustable for both preload and rebound to help dial in the ride. The front forks are inverted and adjustable for preload.

Front and rear disc brakes handle stopping. The front discs are full floating with four-piston calipers. Both ends of the bike have anti-lock braking.

Zapp has four versions of the i300 to launch the brand. The first is a special, limited to just 1,000 units, called the i300 Carbon Launch Edition. It has a red fender and a carbon hard carrier for cargo.

The standard i300 Carbon doesn’t have the storage pack or some of the graphics offered on launch. It does have carbon composite bodywork — like the Launch — to try and help cut weight.

Two other choices give you materials much more innovative than carbon fiber. The i300 bio uses what Zapp calls “a high-tech vegan composite bodywork.” The company doesn’t go into exactly how that material comes to be, but, well, it looks pretty cool on the bike.

The last is the i300 Ocean. That one gets plastic bodywork that’s made from recycled plastics recovered from the ocean. Not only is the recycled material an eco plus, but the Ocean is also the cheapest version of the i300 despite offering the same electric motor and batteries.

After showing off at Goodwood, Zapp is getting ready for launch. That will see bikes available to test ride at stores in cities including London, NYC, Paris, and Seoul. If you aren’t in those cities, Zapp will deliver the i300 directly to your home.

Pricing for the i300 Ocean starts from €6,300, or around $6,700. The launch edition, the priciest of the four, starts from €8,900, or around $9,400.

Evan has been drooling over cars since the time he learned to walk. Since then he's worked on controlling the drooling and expanded his interests to include hiking, cycling, and kayaking. He went to school for engineering but transitioned into a more satisfying career and has been writing automotive and outdoors news for nearly a decade

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