For years, the electric two-wheelers wearing the VIDA badge have all been scooters. That changed in Milan this week. Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters for 25 consecutive years, has unveiled its first electric motorcycle — the VIDA UBX 06, a neo-naked urban explorer shown as a proto-vehicle at EICMA 2026.
The UBX 06 is the moment VIDA steps beyond the scooter. Hero MotoCorp’s electric mobility brand has grown up in public — from its first scooters to a range that now spans city scooters, off-roaders for young riders and, with this debut, a motorcycle built for the streets of the city it is named for. The company says the UBX draws its inspiration from the supermoto segment, and every line of it shows that intent.
A supermoto spirit for city streets
The UBX 06 is a sharp, compact naked motorcycle with a raised tail, exposed frame sections and a stance that looks ready to dart through traffic. At the front sits an LED projector headlamp surrounded by daytime running lights in a distinctive viewfinder-style shape, giving the bike a face unlike anything else in VIDA’s range. Knuckle guards on the wide handlebar, a sculpted silver-finished swingarm and red upper bodywork carrying large VIDA lettering complete a look that is sporty without being aggressive — a motorcycle designed to be ridden every day, not just admired on a stand.
The details reward a closer look. Grey side panels carry contour-map-style graphics, the long single-piece seat rises to a raised pillion section with split grab handles, and a tank-shaped upper enclosure carries a keyed lock hinting at a useful storage compartment. Gold-finished upside-down front forks, a rear monoshock, alloy wheels with road-oriented tyres and disc brakes at both ends give the prototype proper motorcycle hardware, while a belly pan and rear tyre hugger add the finishing touches of a machine built for real roads.
Built like a motorcycle, not a scooter
Under the bodywork, the UBX 06 is engineered the way a motorcycle should be. A large fixed battery pack sits in a substantial finned enclosure at the centre of the bike, with sculpted side panels carrying “Air Duct” markings that show airflow management is part of the design. The motor assembly sits near the swingarm pivot and drives the rear wheel through a chain — a setup the company says delivers a more conventional motorcycle riding experience than the hub motors found on many electric two-wheelers.
That mid-drive, chain-drive layout is the clearest signal of intent in the whole machine. It is the architecture of a motorcycle first and an electric vehicle second, built around the feeling of riding rather than simply the novelty of going electric — and the production specification will follow as the UBX moves closer to the road.
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A cockpit built for the ride
The rider’s view is dominated by a large full-colour digital instrument display showing speed, battery charge and estimated remaining range, with a “Custom 2” riding setting among its modes. The switchgear sits on the left handlebar and includes a mode button, parking control and cruise-control markings — a feature rarely offered on electric motorcycles of this kind, and one that makes the UBX 06 feel like a machine built for longer, easier rides as well as city hops.
The bigger EICMA moment
The UBX 06 did not arrive alone. At the same EICMA showcase, VIDA commenced its European operations, with customer deliveries beginning across 10 countries through a direct-to-consumer model with distribution partner Elektrorider — Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Croatia. The brand’s VX2 urban scooter, with a claimed 140 km WMTC range and a 90 km/h top speed, and its DIRT.E K3 adaptive off-roader are now on sale through retail stores in six of those markets, while Project VXZ, an electric motorcycle concept developed with US-based Zero Motorcycles, and the DIRT.E MX7 off-roader for adult riders shared the stand with the UBX.
Hero MotoCorp’s Executive Chairman Pawan Munjal said the company’s global strategy would combine India’s engineering and manufacturing capabilities with international research and development expertise and strategic partnerships. The UBX 06 is that strategy in its purest form: an Indian electric motorcycle, designed for the city, unveiled on the world’s biggest motorcycle stage.
VIDA’s own film introduces the machine as the urban explorer:
From the world’s largest two-wheeler maker, the first electric motorcycle was never going to be a timid step. The UBX 06 is VIDA growing up — a supermoto-inspired, neo-naked explorer that takes everything the brand learned from its scooters and turns it into a motorcycle. The streets it was built for are waiting.
Keep reading: Made in Krishnagiri, Riding Across India: Inside Ola Electric’s 4680 Bharat Cell · From 3.5 Tonnes to 55: Inside Qucev, the Hyderabad Company Electrifying India’s Heaviest Freight · More Automotive & Mobility stories
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