Can-Am Pulse (2025 - ) Electric review

Interesting how Can-Am, Honda and Livewire have all landed on a similar look for their electric bikes, all of them combining futuristic styling with custom-style flourishes like bar-end mirrors and street cruiser looks. I’ll get to battery sizes, performance, range and the rest later in the review but they’re also comparable, too. For its part the Pulse – like the Origin it shares foundations with – is built around an 8.9kWh battery to which the Rotax motor and enclosed chain drive are attached on a single-sided swingarm. The one you see here is the ’73 edition celebrating Can-Am’s heritage in motorcycle manufacturing. I’m not sure what else it adds for the (considerable) premium beyond some flashes of yellow, an LED headlight and a small flyscreen but the Pulse looks futuristic without being too gimmicky. And certainly stands scrutiny against the Honda and Livewire in design, tech and build quality.

I’m just shy of six-foot and the Can-Am, Honda and Livewire all feel compact and easy to ride, with low seats for easy flat-footed low-speed manoeuvring. So, in size, weight and accessibility totally comparable with an equivalent A2-licence compliant combustion engined bike like a Honda CB500 Hornet. We’ll get to the price difference in a bit… Anyway, the 784mm seat is also a lot lower than the off-road Origin, so again more confidence-inspiring at city speeds and when weaving through traffic. Other than that, it’s a relatively neutral riding position, the bars wide and high enough to feel comfortable while the riding position overall is still sporty enough for when the mood takes you.

Practicality was boosted on the Pulse I tested through the addition of some accessory soft panniers, adding further cost but offering somewhere to stash the lock, waterproofs and charging cable you might need when out and about. The latter is important if you intend to plug into public chargers, the Can-Am only compatible with Type 2 AC points needing a cable rather than the ‘tethered’ car-type DC chargers with their own plugs attached. This is a major practical advantage for the Honda WN7, which has a DC socket so can top up at these car style fast chargers, sparing that need to carry a cable everywhere. Saying that, you might not have to charge too often given the Pulse’s impressive range. My experience of electric vehicles on two wheels and four is that an honest assessment of remaining range is at least as important as the claimed total. To those ends, Can-Am says the Pulse can go 80 miles on the official WMTC evaluation so I tested the theory on a day out riding a mix of roads, many of them less suited to maximising range given they were faster and more open. Credit to the Pulse – even in these conditions the efficiency I scored was actually better than the claims, and good for more like 90 miles on a charge.

On paper the Pulse looks down on power compared with the Honda or Livewire, its peak output bang-on the 47 horsepower limit for A2 licence compatibility but the continuous figure just 26 horsepower. At town speeds I honestly didn’t notice a big difference in the all-important off-the-line acceleration against the other two bikes, this instant response one of the best things about riding an electric bike and more than enough to leave everyone else standing. I’d avoid the eco mode if that’s your ambition though – it’s just too sluggish off the line. Up to about 60mph the Pulse feels just as brisk as the Honda and Livewire, but beyond that it falls away somewhat. Not a problem if most of your riding is around town but if you regularly ride faster roads or beyond city limits the Can-Am has its limitations. Braking is another quirk of electric bikes, given it’s an opportunity to put energy back into the battery as well as slow down for corners or red lights. On the Pulse you can choose from three levels of automatic regen – basically your engine braking – as well as three levels on-demand through rocking the throttle forwards. Timed right you can ride through town using regen alone for slowing down, dramatically improved efficiency and range. Oh, and in another quirk you can even buy the Pulse in A1 trim if you want to ride it on a CBT and L-plates!

The Pulse is a useful 10kg lighter than its chunky off-road cousin, the Origin. You feel that everywhere, the Pulse easier to chuck around and feeling more planted in the turns thanks to its lower centre of gravity. I’d say it feels the most ‘normal’ to ride out of this, the Honda and the Livewire as well, again thanks to that relative lack of weight. Suspension comprises KYB forks up front and a Sachs monoshock out back, so decent enough kit. Your only adjustment is rear preload, though. There’s also the issue of the increased unsprung weight of the motor being mounted to the swingarm, not the frame. I felt this as a degree of sluggishness in the rear wheel’s response to bumps, which is a shame for the fact the Pulse feels otherwise impressive agile. This arrangement is more common on scooters but most conventional motorbikes – the Can-Am’s rivals included – put the motor in the frame for improved handling and suspension response.

At first glance the Pulse’s price makes no sense, given it’s double what you’d pay for an equivalent A2-compliant combustion bike like that Honda CB500 Hornet I mentioned previously as a comparison. It’s an issue common to all electric motorbikes, and one only partially compensated for by the much cheaper running costs. Put it this way, when I stopped for a charge on a day out riding round the Yorkshire Dales a ‘full tank’ cost less than the coffee I sipped while waiting for it to top up, and that’s on an expensive public charger. Over the longer-term the scooter-style mechanical arrangement of motor and enclosed chain with built-in tensioner and lubrication will require less upkeep, while consumables like tyres and brakes should be on a par with equivalent combustion bikes.

Hard to say but Can-Am is a serious player, with a proven track record across its many and various products. A fly-by-night mail order brand with no back-up or support network it most definitely is not. Ditto the Rotax motor and cycle parts from the likes of KYB and J.Juan. We have every hope it will deliver on the expectation of that chunky price on this score.

The two-year warranty for the bike is nothing special but the battery and motor are at least covered for five years or 50,000km (a smidge over 30,000 miles), whichever comes first. Servicing is a little different from a combustion bike, the ‘break-in’ service not required until 3,000 miles, after which you’ll be returning to the dealer every year or 9,300 miles for a once-over.

Chances are if you’re buying an electric motorbike you like your tech. And the Can-Am doesn’t disappoint on that score, your main interaction being through an app-supported touch-screen you can apparently connect to through CarPlay or Android Auto. You need to do this on a cable rather than wirelessly but I still couldn’t get it to work without connecting a headset as well, which was faff I didn’t need. The accessory tank bag fitted to my test bike is probably an essential if this is your ambition, given it gives you somewhere to stash your phone when connected up. Better news in the interface with the screen, which I found clear, logical and easy to master whether by touch at a standstill or on the controls on the left switch cube on the move. This is also back-lit and feels very well-made. A shame so many of the bits you see on the bike in the pictures cost extra, though, especially given the burly base price of the bike.

The Pulse is a very impressive demonstration of Can-Am’s electric tech, the calibration of throttle, regen and rider modes all very slick indeed. Indeed, it feels a quality product throughout, and Can-Am’s wider experience of building things like Ski-Doos, side-by-sides and three-wheelers shines through. It’s a worthy rival to the Honda WN7 and Livewire S2 Alpinista I rode previously as well. OK, perhaps not as fast. But I think the range predictions were more reliable, the tech interface through the screen more sophisticated and the engineering absolutely the equal of Honda or Harley.