Real Motors Details Project Ares, a $20,000 Electric Motorcycle Built in South Carolina
Real Motors has detailed Project Ares, an all-electric motorcycle that starts at $20,000 and is the first offering from the South Carolina company. The Verge reported the specifications on November 10, 2026.
The company was cofounded by CEO Trent Dingman and design engineer Michael Feng. Project Ares is designed and built in Greenville, South Carolina. The prototype the company has been working with is designated Prototype 04 and is called "Ghost."
On the electrical side, the battery pack is planned at roughly 15 kilowatt-hours (kWh), a measure of stored energy, much as a gallon figure describes a fuel tank. The bike charges at up to 3.3 kilowatts (kW), the rate at which power flows into the pack, through an SAE J1772 inlet on top of its "tank." That places the charge port where a fuel filler would normally sit on a conventional motorcycle. The electric motor is officially rated at 101 horsepower. Real Motors quotes 738 pound-feet of torque measured at the wheel after gearing multiplication, meaning torque after the final drive has multiplied it. The stated total weight is 485 pounds.
Those two drivetrain figures are not stated on the same basis. The 101 horsepower is a motor rating, while the 738 pound-feet is a wheel figure that includes the final drive. Relating one to the other requires the gear ratio, and the announced numbers do not allow a direct comparison of motor output with wheel torque. Anyone evaluating the bike against published electric motorcycle specifications should keep that distinction in view.
Working from the stated figures, a 15 kWh pack charged at a constant 3.3 kW would take a little under five hours to fill from empty, before charging losses and taper (the slowdown in charging speed as the pack nears full). The pack size is also described as roughly 15 kWh and is framed as a plan, so the usable capacity, the range, and the charge curve remain unconfirmed.
The broader context here is price. A $20,000 starting point places an all-electric motorcycle in a bracket where buyers usually weigh range, charge time, and service network against the cost of a comparable gasoline machine. The 485-pound curb weight and the 101 horsepower rating suggest a machine aimed at urban and commuter use more than sustained highway running. Because the bike is described as a prototype-stage design, the distance between a $20,000 price and an actual delivered vehicle is still an open question.
In my view, the most useful thing about a Greenville-built, J1772-charged electric motorcycle is that it uses an existing charging standard rather than a proprietary connector. A rider who already charges a car at home or at public stations has a familiar interface, and a shared inlet lowers the adoption barrier for a vehicle that is otherwise a niche product. Whether Real Motors can hold the $20,000 starting price and deliver the planned pack, power, and weight numbers at production will determine whether Project Ares moves from a prototype program into a product line.
For readers tracking electric two-wheelers, Project Ares adds a new entrant from a company new to the market, with specifications concrete enough to test once production hardware exists.
