Horwin launches three Senmenti battery-electric two-wheelers at CES 2024

Wired says that Wendsor Zhou Wei combined the words "horizon" and "win" to create his company name Horwin. Based in China and recently expanded to Europe, Horwin's launched its U.S. bid for two-wheeler market share at the Consumer Electronics Show with three bikes. Let's deal with the form factors first. Horwin calls these motorcycles, but in the U.S. they're between a small bike and a scooter. Compared to a Honda CB300R motorcycle and Suzuki Burgman 400 scooter, the Horwin's 16-inch front and 14-inch rear wheels are smaller than the 17-inchers on the Honda, but one inch larger than the Burgman's wheels. The Horwin's step-over height is noticeably lower than the Honda's, but the Horwin's 31.3-inch seat is just a few inches under the Honda, 1.6 inches above the Suzuki. It's the bar height and placement relative to the seat, which we don't have a spec on, that gives the Horwin that trademark scooter look like the Burgman instead of the Honda. So we're going to call it a bike or maxi scooter.

That out of the way, the Horwin range is called Senmenti — which sounds like another portmanteau word — consisting of a near-production bike and two concepts. The version closest to delivery is the Senmenti 0 that the company calls a "high-performance electric urban adventure ADV," or adventure bike. The model debuted at last year's EICMA Show in Milan, Italy, and although it's said to have been put on a diet that delivers better handling and agility, the maxi scooter still weighs 507 pounds. This is due in large part to the honking, liquid-cooled, 16.2-kWh lithium-ion battery, That's just down from the 17.3-kWh pack in the Zero Motorcycles DSR/X electric adventure motorcycle, which weighs 545 pounds. That pack powers an electric motor claimed to make 98 horsepower and an even-more-honking 659 pound-feet of torque good for doing the 0-to-60 in 2.8 seconds, a 125-mph top speed, and a range of 186 miles on the WLTP cycle.   

Horwin says the maxi scooter is compatible with most home charging stations, and that getting the battery back to 80% happens in 30 minutes.

On the go, riders get a seven-inch TFT display, four riding modes, niceties like heated seats and handlebars, and safety features like ABS and front and rear cameras. Communication tech includes the Senmenti 0 talking to other local Horwins "to personalize experience for each individual rider based on behaviors and preferences," part of an Advanced Riding Assistance System (ARAS) "designed to increase personalization as the system collects data to understand the rider, preventing accidents and enhancing rider protection and confidence."

We don't have much info on the concepts, the Senmenti X Hyper GT and Senmenti 11. The former is called an "ultimate-performance touring model" with an estimated WLTP range of 250 miles, the latter "a futuristic city explorer of high-performance, style, and technology." We're looking forward to more information on all the products, especially the 11 and that yo-yo-style back wheel.

The pre-order page is open for all three rides now. For the Sentimenti 0, a slot in the build queue asks for a refundable $100 deposit, placed toward a base MSRP of $16,800 (the Zero DSR/X starts at $22,995). Test rides won't start until about Q3, though. For interested shoppers, Horwin says it will reward early pre-orders that turn into purchases with three years of free charging nationwide, lifetime OTA upgrades, and $800 in bonus cash of $900 to go toward the final purchase price. Wired says the Senmenti X is planned for market release in 2025, the Hyper GT in 2026.