There’s no question electric cars have seen a remarkable rise in the last 5 years, now representing around 18% of worldwide sales. However, when it comes to electric motorcycles, the market seems to still be in an infancy stage. Nevertheless, as key players move towards the goal of zero emissions, an electric future is on the horizon, whether we’re ready for it or not. 

In preparation for this future, Can-Am has decided to rejoin the motorcycle segment with an all-electric line-up. Their goal? To stake their claim at ground level now and eventually become the global leader in this emerging electric motorcycle market. 

After a 37-year hiatus, the Canadian powersports manufacturer is spearheading their electric motorcycle portfolio with two new models for 2024, a street-focused bike called the Pulse and a Dual Sport model, the Origin, which was the bike I spent the majority of time testing during the US press launch in Austin, Texas. So let’s take a look at what you get with this new off-road focused machine.

What You Get

At the heart of the Origin lies the Rotax E-Power motor, delivering a punchy 47 horsepower and 53 ft-lbs of torque. This motor is cleverly housed in the swingarm, ensuring optimal weight distribution and power delivery. With this setup, chain slack remains constant, and the bike benefits from anti-squat characteristics under acceleration. The Origin accelerates quite rapidly too with a 0-to-60 mph time of just 4.3 seconds — comparable to many of the latest twin-cylinder adventure bikes in the 800cc class.

The drivetrain of the Can-Am Origin is equally notable. It boasts an enclosed ‘Silent Drive’ chain drive system that bathes the chain in oil and includes an internal tensioner, resulting in a near silent, maintenance-free design. The bike operates with a single forward gear and also includes a reverse gear to help riders navigate tricky off-road situations.

The chassis of the Can-Am Origin clearly signals its off-road intentions, featuring a 21-inch front and 18-inch rear spoked wheel combo wrapped in Dunlop D605 50/50 dual sport tires. The suspension, made by Kayaba, offers 10.8 inches of travel, with a non-adjustable front suspension and a fully-adjustable rear shock. The bike has a seat height of 34 inches and tips the scale at a claimed 412 pounds (with or without a full charge). Significant weight savings were achieved by using the battery as a structural component of the frame.

Braking is handled by J.Juan, with a 2-piston floating caliper on a 320mm disc in the front and a single-piston caliper on a 240mm disc in the rear. The bike is equipped with ABS, which can be turned off in the rear for off-road use.

The Can-Am Origin’s battery capacity is 8.9 kWh, and it features an advanced ReGen system that replenishes the battery under deceleration. The ReGen level is adjustable too, depending on how much motor braking you’d like to have. There is also an active ReGen feature that allows you to slow the bike down more rapidly like a secondary brake.

Estimated range is 90 miles in the city, with off-road riding expected to yield similar results depending on how soft the terrain is. On the highway, riding at constant speeds, the range drops down to approximately 50 miles. Charging the battery from 20% to 80% takes 50 minutes with a level-2 charger or 3 hours with a level-1 charger. Additionally, an advanced liquid-cooling system ensures consistent range and charging performance in both hot and cold weather, while also enhancing battery longevity. 

When it comes to electronics, the Origin offers six riding modes — Normal, Sport, ECO, Rain, Off-Road, and Off-Road+ — allowing riders to adjust the power characteristics, traction control and ABS to suit different conditions. The bike is equipped with a massive 10.25-inch TFT touchscreen as well to monitor and adjust all the vitals. The TFT also supports Apple CarPlay, enabling seamless integration with iPhone apps, including on-screen map navigation. For you Android users, Can-Am says support is on the way. 

We spent a full day testing the Origin in the city, on the highway and backroads, and also off-road trails on a private ranch in order to get a gauge of its capability in a variety of different scenarios. Let’s dive into how it performed.

First Impressions

Sitting on the Origin for the first time, it’s a compact machine with a size of a bike in the 400-600cc range. It feels relatively lighter than you’d expect, until you lean it over and you begin to feel the weight at more extreme angles. The dash is the largest I’ve seen on a motorcycle and it incorporates all the important info you might need at a glance. Overall, the fit and finish exude quality. The look gives off a futuristic vibe. 

After putting it in Drive mode, it silently moves forward with smooth throttle control. Hit the gas and there’s instant torque, right off idle so to speak, which takes some getting used to if you are accustomed to gas engines that need revs to make power. Zipping down the road, it produces very little sound other than a subtle whir that increases in pitch with your speed. It’s quieter than your typical bicycle with a freewheeling chain. There’s no vibration, no shifting gears, just smooth constant acceleration, and once you get to about 45 mph all you can hear is the wind. If a magic carpet existed, this is what I imagine it would feel like.

On-Road Performance

The Can-Am Origin’s electronics are straightforward and user-friendly, including four street modes. ECO mode significantly smooths out the acceleration curve, making it ideal for conserving energy and reducing power-sapping throttle jerkiness. Similarly, rain mode smooths out the torque delivery for maximum traction on slippery surfaces, while Sport mode unleashes the bike’s full power. Normal mode offers balanced performance with just a bit of smoothing. 

In the city, the Can-Am Origin excels with agility and compact proportions. The low center of gravity makes it easy to balance at slow speeds, and the bike has a fairly light feel. Rolling down the streets of downtown Austin, the Can-Am Origin’s upright riding position provides excellent visibility for the city commute. However, taller riders may find their knees slightly cramped and reach to the bars a bit on the short side (I’m 6’2”). Despite the smaller proportions, the high perch visibility makes it ideal for navigating urban environments and it’s still plenty comfortable for the shorter distances it’s designed for. 

When it comes to cruising backroads, the Can-Am Origin shines. The absence of engine noise, vibrations, and gear shifting creates a peaceful and relaxing ride, allowing you to feel more connected with your surroundings. The bike feels planted too without any of the twitchy handling you often get on the highway aboard a dual sport bike. The small optional windscreen (standard on the Origin 73 model) does just enough to block the wind at chest level, reducing fatigue at 65+ mph. It’s a significant improvement over not having a windscreen at all.

In the bends, the Can-Am Origin proved to be agile and flickable, with smooth acceleration out of turns. The bike’s small size and responsive handling make it a pleasure to ride on winding roads. Leaning deep into corners feels natural, and there’s no premature peg scraping. The Dunlop D605 semi-knobby tires offer plenty of grip and roll smoothly over pavement.

The power delivery of the Can-Am Origin is impressive, especially off the line. With traction control (TC) off in Sport mode, it easily power wheelies at slower speeds and the bike can catch you by surprise with its instant torque. Turning onto a freeway onramp at one point, I decided to test the acceleration as the bike was straightening up out of the turn. I gave it a handful of throttle not realizing I had TC off and it quickly kicked the rear out to full steering lock. Luckily, muscle memory from years of off-road riding allowed me to recover it and avoid a highside.

While the power needs to be respected at slower speeds, as you accelerate above 45 mph the thrust tapers off significantly. This bike has a computer limited top speed of 80 mph — a decision that was made to help improve battery range claims. When riding in ‘Normal’ mode with TC on, the bike is un-intimidating and relatively safe from unintended whiskey throttle.

Braking performance is mixed, with good power from the front single caliper brake and nice modulation that isn’t too grabby or sensitive. The rear brake is average though, offering decent stopping power but lacking the same level of feedback. I noticed some squealing when coming to a stop when the brakes were cold but this seemed to go away later in the day.

The battery ReGen system was interesting to play with. You can adjust the amount of Regen from high-to-low, or off, which controls the amount of engine braking feel and how much power is sent back to the battery. With passive ReGen, you send power back to the battery every time you let off the throttle. In high mode, the engine braking feel is more like a 4-stroke, low mode it’s like a 2-stroke, With it off, it freewheels like a bicycle.

The Active ReGen system is more of a secondary brake. Instead of using up your brake pads, you can initiate the Active ReGen and slow down the bike by rolling the throttle backwards. It’s not an aggressive deceleration, more what you’d expect to feel from light braking pressure. It’s not a substitute if you need to come to a hard stop quickly but enough to slow you down for an upcoming corner.

I used the Active braking system regularly to get a feel for it until the point when it stopped working. As we stopped for lunch, I asked a Can-Am tech about it. I was told the ReGen will stop working if the battery gets too low. At that point we had been riding on the highway at sustained speeds of 65-70 mph for a good 30-40 minutes, so the battery was down to about 10%. 

It was 108° F when we stopped for our lunch break. Despite the liquid cooling system, the battery required a five-minute cooldown before charging could commence. A minor inconvenience considering the conditions. I was told that with this extreme heat, it would normally require around 30 minutes of cool-down time without the water cooling in place.

After getting back on the road with a full charge, I noticed Active ReGen was still not working. This might have had something to do with the excessive heat but also the fact that we were riding pre-production models. Hopefully, that glitch gets resolved before the bikes reach dealer floors.

Off-Road Performance

During our lunch stop at a private ranch, we got an opportunity to session the Origin on a couple of different dirt tracks. One was a more open, vet-style motocross track with small jumps while the other was a serpentine single track trail through a patch of oak trees.

Standing up on the bike, the platform-style footpegs feel grippy with plenty of support while the compact design of the bike feels a little tight with a shorter distance between pegs and bars. The bar height seemed decent for a taller rider (I’m 6’2”), I would probably go with mild bar risers and figure out a way to position the bars forward slightly. Perhaps just rolling the bars forward a tad would be good enough  to open up the ergos. The body position wasn’t  bad though compared to many bikes in the adventure range, and I could ride it comfortably in the ‘attack’ position.

While it was nice to have a long, flat, single-piece seat that you can slide back and forth on, it has a cut out design that puts you down in the bike more when seated. This makes it hard to scoot forward on the tank (i.e. engine cover) with a steep seat-to-tank junction. Shorter riders will appreciate the relatively-low seat height it enables but a taller seat would be a welcome option for long-legged riders and those looking to do more off-road terrain.

When it comes to suspension, it’s not the hard-edge dual sport I was hoping for but its generous travel keeps it from bottoming out easily on jumps. And while the rear shock seemed to work fine in rough terrain, the front fork felt on the soft side. When pushed aggressively in the whoops or stutter bumps, the front end seemed to load up causing the tire to skip across the ground under hard braking. A little less rebound damping would have likely resolved any problems but unfortunately there is no adjustability on the fork. If not in the next model iteration hopefully the aftermarket will develop a simple drop-in fork upgrade kit, which could really improve performance and versatility.

While more-advanced off-road riders might feel the front end is lacking a bit, the suspension seems to be dialed in for intermediate speeds and terrain. It has a plush feel over the smaller bumps and the front end tracks smoothly through soft terrain. When you push it hard enough to feel the front end start to tuck on loose patches, it’s easily recovered too. Slow technical terrain is where the bike has a clear advantage. Here you can really appreciate the low center of gravity, excellent stability and smooth throttle.

With its excellent slow-speed handling, I imagine it would be quite fun on a rocky, technical trail but unfortunately we only had a short time testing the Origin off-road. We’ll have to see how it performs in this type of terrain when we get one for a more in-depth test.

As far as different modes, you have the option of standard Off-Road or Off-Road+, with light intervention from the traction control in both modes and a more-sporty throttle response in the plus mode. Both off-road modes allow you to turn off traction control and rear ABS. Front ABS remains on all the time, but it does allow more slip than in street modes. 

The front ABS worked admirably in soft terrain without much chatter. The rear brake feel with ABS disabled offered better feel off-road, providing feedback and improved confidence in loose conditions. I left ReGen on high for a 4-stroke like engine braking effect in the Passive mode but it didn’t really make sense to use Active ReGen on the trail.

While testing the Origin, I did have an issue with the heel of my boot hitting the kickstand when launching off of jumps or big dips. This would lead to a beep and a ‘kickstand down’ warning, then the bike would go into some type of limp mode, even after resetting the kickstand position. The only way to get the bike back to full power was a reboot of the dash.  

This problem happened several times and was frustrating for me, but no one else in our group experienced it. We later figured out that the other journalists were all wearing light boots or motorcycle shoes, while I was wearing size 12.5 US/47 EU Leatt adventure boots that are more on the motocross side of the spectrum. I also tend to ride more on the balls of my feet rather than in the arch, which puts my heel right on top of the kickstand. Either way, this is something that needs to be addressed for those us folks with big dogs looking to use this bike as a true dual sport.

Final thoughts

If a shift to an electric future really is underway the question is how long will it take. There are clearly some hurdles that need to be overcome in terms of range, weight, cost and some riders are just unwilling to give up the sound and fury of gas engines. 

While the Origin may not be the electric bike that sets the industry on fire, it gets Can-Am immediately in the mix of an electric motorcycle market poised to take off. At the moment this bike is tailored more for early adopters, particularly those who are looking to use it as a practical commuter, as well as for short trips into the backcountry. According to Can-Am, many of these early adopters are looking to explore electric options rather than replace the gas-powered motorcycle already in their garage.

Some unique features that will help set the Origin apart are innovations like its Linq quick-release accessory attachment system, water-cooled electronics or its ‘silent drive’ enclosed chain drive, all of which were borrowed tech from other powersports vehicles in the BRP family (Can-Am’s parent company). They have also decided to use a smaller battery system for faster charging, reduced weight and improved the agility compared to similar electric offerings.

The Origin also seems to be clearly targeted towards new off-road riders who will appreciate its compact, lightweight design and manageable power. It may not be a hard-edged enduro machine but for a young professional looking to upgrade their electric bicycle to a true electric motorcycle for their city commute, while also having off-road exploring options on the weekend, it has great potential.

The Origin’s range clearly isn’t great but Can-Am has been clear this is a ‘dual sport’ not an adventure bike. When used as a dual sport, many riders may feel the 60-90 miles of range is adequate for trails of the more challenging type. A bigger hurdle to overcome though may be the price. The starting MSRP for the Origin is $14,499, which puts it in price competition with bikes like the KTM 500 EXC-F ($13,599), BMW F900GS ($14,190 starting MSRP) or KTM 890 Adventure R ($15,799 starting MSRP). Of course you don’t have to pay for gas anymore, but gas is relatively cheap already on a motorcycle.

While the cost may seem prohibitive for some, and ridiculous to those who are not fans of electric tech, the fact is cutting-edge tech is never cheap. For those early adopters this bike is targeted towards, who are already paying high prices for e-bicycles and electric cars, it might be right in line with expectations.  In order to achieve mass adoption though, the range, price and experience really have to come together in a compelling way. We may not be there quite yet but with every bike released like the Origin that’s pushing the tech, it gets us one step closer.

Production of the Can-Am Origin begins in Q4 of 2024 and global deliveries start shipping to dealers in early 2025.

Can-Am Origin Specs

Photos by Mike Emery (Align Media)

Author: Rob Dabney

Rob Dabney started a lifelong obsession with motorcycles at the age of 15 when he purchased his first bike – a 1982 Honda MB5. Through his 20’s and 30’s he competed in off-road desert races, including the Baja 250, 500 and 1000. Eventually, his proclivity for exploration led him to dual sport and adventure riding. Rob’s never-ending quest to discover what’s around the next bend has taken him on Adventures in Latin America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and throughout the American West. As a moto journalist, he enjoys inspiring others to seek adventure across horizons both near and far.