The Silence start-up has specialized in electric motorcycles and is now launching a small electric car for two people that offer up to 149 kilometers of autonomy.
Silence, a Catalan start-up, released its first product, the S01, a 100 percent electric scooter with a good design, cutting-edge technology, detachable and replaceable batteries, and an affordable price, ready to find a place in Spain's largest market for electric motorcyclists.
Although we could tell dozens of similar stories, the truth is that two Spanish industry behemoths backed the Silence start-up: the oil company Repsol and the La Caixa Catalan bank, who contributed juicy capital that allowed the company to even make an offer for the Nissan plant in Barcelona, which was recently closed.
Silence launched the S02 electric scooter a few months later, and it became the best-selling scooter in Spain, quickly overtaking large gasoline scooters. The company-exclusive three-wheeler S03 was only a byproduct of this aggressive product strategy, which resulted in Acciona purchasing Repsol's shares and being the company's dominant shareholder.
Thus, Silence is the leading firm in electric motorbikes in Spain, with 4,033 registrations in 2020, and the S01 is the country's sixth best-selling scooter. It made 34.78 million euros in sales in 2019. It has become the maker of the new SEAT scooters from the end of 2020 and creating its own variants.
Well, Silence is now launching its first electric car under the label of a quadricycle: the S04. It is a city electric car born after an investment of 30 million euros, designed for electric mobility, small, manageable, and with optimal autonomy with the city in mind.
This model measures only 2.23 meters long and 1.56 meters wide, so it only offers space for two occupants. And just like motorcycles, it will use a removable battery pack, which will be double. In addition, it has a trunk large enough to carry small suitcases, bags, backpacks, and even grocery bags.
The Silence S04 electric car will be ready for production in 2022, with an initial production run of 1,000 units that the first year, gradually increasing to 30,000 units yearly. Despite the focus on vehicle-sharing fleets and corporations, Silence expects that a large percentage will end up in private ownership.
Depending on battery capacity and autonomy, it will be offered in two configurations:
Silence S04 L7e has a 14 kW (18.7 Hp) motor and a pack with two batteries that reach a capacity of 11 kWh. This model has a maximum speed of 90 km / h and an autonomy of 149 kilometers.
Silence S04 L6e has a 6 kWh (8.0 Hp) motor, and its maximum speed is reduced to 45 km / h so that it can be driven from the age of 15. The battery has a capacity of 5.6 kWh, so the maximum autonomy is about 70 kilometers.
The Silence S04 is equipped with a multifunction steering wheel, power windows, central locking, an audio system with Bluetooth, a 7-inch TFT screen, compatibility for a smartphone in a horizontal or vertical configuration, air conditioning, 155/65 R14 tires, and rear-wheel drive. ABS is available as an option.
