2025-on Can-Am Pulse Review | Revived Canadian manufacturer’s electric city-slicker aims to dominate

The Can-Am name might not mean much to many riders, particularly outside North America or those under the age of 50, but the historic dirt bike brand is back with models looking to the future: the Pulse electric commuter, as well as the Origin trail bike with which it shares the one-piece battery/motor/inverter unit. The two bikes are separated by forks, wheels, shock and the short front-frame/headstock bolted to the power unit, which gives the stablemates different geometry as appropriate for their different focus.

The Pulse is the lower-priced, owing to its slightly simpler construction (it’s 10kg lighter) and less adjustable rear shock, saving a few bucks at manufacture. But it’s the faster, more economical of the two, so if you have zero need (or desire) to head off road it’s the more sensible choice, with an extra 10 miles of range: 100 miles at city speeds, 80 miles in mixed use.

The pairing are the first in a range that Can-Am hopes will come to define the electric bike world – a tall order, given the rival offerings are so disparate in price, performance, range and focus.

It’s hard to see bikes based on a sole powertrain being enough to dominate – some customers may want to spend less money, or might wish for more power/range than the mid-level Can-Ams. We’re expecting two further models soon, likely based on the same platform.

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At least their lofty ambitions are based on two well-thought out machines that are great to ride. Petrolheads/EV cynics will be smug to know that they’re still affected by the price (£14,899), range (100 miles city, 80 miles combined) and performance constraints (47bhp, restricted top speed of 80mph) that afflict any bike: until battery technology takes a significant leap that allows a higher power density (that is, how much range/performance you can extract per kilo of cell mass), the trade-off of weight and performance remains. Current battery tech is expensive, too – you can only make it cheaper with smaller batteries.

Can-Am’s design and choices make the best of those constraints, however. A dry weight of 177kg (likely just over 180kg with the coolant and oils required) isn’t excessive, and it has plenty of torque to motivate it as well as the chassis to control it, so it’s at least good to ride, if limited in some regards.

The motor drives the rear wheel directly without a clutch or gearing of any kind, so it’s an urgent but linear drive, the instant torque wrenching you off the line with the TFT speed readout rising sharply up to 60mph, before it starts to tail off around 70mph, although it still hits its limited top speed smartly enough: you can be flat out by the end of a slip-road onto a dual-carriageway, put it that way.

Is it as engaging as a ICE motorcycle? No, but rather than looking for something familiar, it’s best to embrace something new and enjoy it in its own way – being able to call on consistently strong torque through traffic or out of bends is enjoyable in it’s own right. Again, it’s a kind of riding fun that suits town riding, though if you have a tight, nadgery back-road with 20-50mph bends to fire out of, it has the chassis package to make the most of it.

Can-Am’s ambitions including attracting under-35s onto their bikes (a diminishing demographic in most Western motorcycle markets) who may not have ridden before: as well as the dynamic package, they've sought to make the ownership experience modern, fuss-free and akin to the experience of buying a new car.

The large TFT dash has more than a whiff of the tablet-like dash controls in cars (Teslas, most notably in this instance), with both switchgear and touchscreen controls. There’s over-the-air updates for bug fixes and software enhancements, reducing the need to visit dealers for anything other than scheduled maintenance.

There’s full-connectivity, although Android users will have to live with more basic phone/music playback for now, as Google no longer support Android Auto on motorcycles: iPhone users have Car Play ready to control whichever navigation/music/charging apps they desire.

Services should prove short and less costly than an ICE bike: it has an enclosed Hy-Vo/silent chain with an auto tensioner running in oil, that only requires periodic oil changes, with the first visual inspection not due until 15,500 miles – replacement is likely to be even further down the line. It’s the same componentry used on snowmobiles, where the load and stress is higher. The coolant needs changing too, but otherwise it’s basic checks for wear and tear. No clutches, valves, camchains and so on…

It's a well-thought out machine that belies Can-Am’s lack of recent motorcycle-building experience (although they’ve heavily leant on their other powersports experience): in fact, approaching the market without decades of habit and tradition weighing them down, they’ve created a bike that sets itself apart from the market to a degree, and stands a chance of meeting their aims of attracting new riders as well as leading the market – albeit still shackled by the limitations of current battery technology.

The Pulse is propped up by KYB suspension front and rear, with just preload adjustment on the rear shock. Dunlop GPR300 tyres are standard fit, and J.Juan provide the braking (at least, the conventional friction-based stopping – see ‘Engine’ for details on the regenerative braking).

It’s essentially frameless, using the power train to mount all of the components, including the single-sided swingarm/chain case and a small steering head to hang the forks off.

It’s considered a medium-sized battery in the motorcycle world, up to 70kg lighter than the most powerful, longest range electric bikes from Livewire, Zero and Energica, whilst having more grunt and stamina than flyweight electric dirt bikes, like Surron’s e-trailies. Compromise is the word we’d use: claimed weight is only 10kg heavier than a KTM 390 Duke, and 10kg lighter than a Honda CB500 Hornet, if you’re looking for comparisons with ICE A2-compliant nakeds. The Livewire S2 Del Mar is a touch heavier/more powerful/pricey again, but occupies a similar middle-ground to great effect.

The centre of gravity is lower it would be with a tank of fuel perched on top of an engine. That offers a sure-footed, stable and confidence-inspiring feel, but it also means there’s less weight transfer, which aids steering as well as loading the tyres on the brakes/throttle. It’s not a particularly sporty ride, but if you do put some elbow in and try to hustle, there’s grip and reasonably firm suspension to call upon, so it doesn’t turn itself into a wobbling mess.

It wouldn’t be a bad way to enjoy a two-hour weekend ride on, but it feels most at home in the city where the handling compliments the easy-going, practical feel of the rest of the package. It’s one shortfall is braking: the single front caliper works just fine at a light touch with good initial feel and gentle response, but squeeze harder and you get a disproportionate response: in a bad way.

Most of the time it’s not an issue as you can rely on regenerative braking: it’s only in an emergency when it could really use a four-piston caliper to help nail it down that bit quicker. The rear brake is fine for fine control around town, but again lacking in a bit outright power with a numb feel too.

ABS is good: in dry conditions it didn’t intervene at all where we’d expect a cruder system to panic and release pressure. It may be different when we ride one on wet UK roads, not asphalt under the scorching Texan sun…

A three-star rating is mildly damning: it’s less a reflection on its performance and manners, more the age-old EV bugbear: range. Sacrificing battery size to keep it small and light enough not to intimidate new riders, or limit its traffic-busting skills, means you’re realistically only get between 60-80 miles use, unless you can both achieve the maximum specified ranges and are prepared to run the battery close to empty. A tactic that’s bad for the battery, and your blood pressure, as the power indicator closes in on 0%...

That’s still enough for a reasonable commute from outlying towns into a big city (for British riders, think Guildford to central London, Manchester to Liverpool or Stirling into Edinburgh – thereabouts) on a single charge, so you won’t necessarily need to charge during the day and overnight.

Talking of charging, hook up to a mode 3 charge point and it’ll go from zero to 100% in ninety minutes, or 50 minutes from 20-80%, which is the sweetspot in terms of being kind to the battery. Full depleting and charging too often increases the stress as well as taking longer – if you can live in the middle 60%, it’ll pay off in the long run.

That said, Can-Am guarantee the battery for five years anyway, and engineers at the Pulse’s launch suggested its development background in the brutally-cold environment snowmobiles are subjected to (the Rotax E-Power motor is identical, with the battery/inverter similar too) means it’s likely to outlast the bike. Bold claims, that sound plausible, but are yet to be proven by customers…

There’s not much to say about the performance: it’s a gearless electric motor. Just twist and go. It’s strong torque with a certain Tron/George Jetson quality to, instantly hoofing up the road from a standstill to national speed limits with no pause. One key benefit with the Can-Am Pulse’s powertrain is the full liquid-cooling (incidentally, used for heating the system on snowmobiles to allow function in sub-zero conditions).

Other E-motorcycles have only partial liquid-cooling – typically, the battery is air-cooled. Hard use generates heat in the cells, and once it reaches a critical point output is limited to prevent overheating and allow it to cool down in use. Some of Zero’s comparable models promise a marginally higher top speed, but in reality after a minute or two it’ll peg you back to under 70mph. For the miscreants among you, you’ll be pleased to know it’s even capable of wheelies…

The Texas launch saw sweltering temps of 39°c (just over 100°F), with the ambient temperature display regularly climbing over 40°c when stopped at traffic lights, or stuck in traffic. Texas is one of the majority of US states that doesn’t allow filtering/lane-splitting, so you’ve no choice but to suck it up, and wonder when ‘land of the free’ will extend to commuting motorcyclists…

The Can-Am never suffered with a reduction in power, able to sail along flat-out as long as desired. The only suggestion that it was getting warm was the occasional temporary unavailability of the strong regenerative braking options.

There are four settings for this power-recouping feature. Two ‘passive’ settings, Min and Max, which activate when you roll or close the throttle fully, feeding a little back into the battery. If you want to extract the maximum amount of rage preservation, there’s also Active regen, which is engaged by pushing the twistgrip forward, for two levels of more serious engine braking – the Max setting offering serious decelerative force, enough to bring the Pulse to a standstill. It has a certain amount of progression too – a small forward twist gives you some of each setting’s potential, or ramming it home to the stop for maximum effect.

Once you’re used to using it, it’s easier to use that than bother the brake levers, rendering them redundant for anything other than panic-braking. Brake pads may well degrade with age before you wear them out…

The Can-Am pulse is a neat, considered design and broadly looks well put-together too: our test bikes were claimed to be pre-production models, and the R&D team pointed out a few areas that were not up to the intended final standard. We’re fairly confident it’ll looks like a £14,000 bike when it’s on sale.

Reliability is of course unproven at the time of writing, though electric motorcycles in general have proven to live up the simplistic, low-maintenance promise, and the full liquid-cooling/enclosed final drive should further control long-term wear/tear.

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The rating we’ve given is relative to the electric bike market: look for an ICE A2 naked bike of comparable performance and you’ll spend less than half as much on initial purchase price. That’s just how it is: batteries are expensive thanks to the rare-earth elements used in current tech (we’re told), and the asking price of any electric bike is directly proportionate to the battery size. And range/performance, by extension. Until a breakthrough is made that doesn’t use such costly raw materials, that’s how it is.

But in comparison to rivals, it feels like Can-Am have balanced overall performance, spec and price pretty well – it’s toward the lower end of premium electric bike pricing, but the ride and equipment are as good as anything. Running costs should be low – ‘fuelling’ costs are lower, and maintenance costs are reduced in comparison to the servicing needs of a fossil-fuel drinker.

There’s a limited edition Pulse 73 model,  with the optional screen, LED running lights and a unique silver paint scheme. It looks nice, but it’s £2000 extra, and the only material gains are £450 worth of accessories: add those to a white standard model and you’ll save over £1000. Oddly, the ‘carbon black’ paint option costs an extra £1000: the white bike looks best anyway, unless you really dig the murdered-out look.

There is essentially only one rival – the Zero S, at £15,300. It has a higher claimed range (from 101-154 miles, power (60bhp), but it’s higher top speed (86mph) is only for short periods: it eases back to 70mph when the battery gets warm. It’s also not A2 licence compatible, if that’s a factor for you, and that extra performance comes with a 40kg weight penalty, so it’s less manageable. It has fully-adjustable suspension over the Can-Am, but the Can-Am’s dash and interface is more sophisticated. It's swings and roundabouts: what are your priorities?

Find a Zero S, and other EV bikes in MCN's classifieds here. Or to get a better idea where more savings can be made with an EV bike, head to MCN's insurance comparison site to help.

The dash, interface and connectivity are the Can-Am’s stand-out feature, with most of the features anyone used to the bells and whistles of modern cars would recognise. Apple Car Play makes life easy for iPhone users, though Google’s withdrawal of Android Auto for motorcycles leaves all bike manufacturers scrabbling around for a solution for everyone else.

The rest of the bike is fairly basic (it is a naked, after all): the only suspension adjustment is rear preload, the brakes are nothing special, and Dunlop GPR300s are fine, rather than outstanding, as OE tyre choice.

There’s plenty of well-designed accessories – the quick-release, easy to fit luggage and screen (using the ¼-turn ‘LinQ’ attachments are neat, crash protection and more.