That motorcycles are the symbol of the lightest and freest journey is certain, but today they also want to continue to be objects of desire, sophisticated in design and refined in aesthetics. At the Car Design Event there were two examples capable of embodying this aspect in a very different way: a reborn Norton, and Novus, on the contrary a very recent German startup.
Simon Skinner, Norton’s Head of Design, knows the brand like few others given his seventeen years with the company. “You could cut me in half and find Norton written on it,” he said with a hint of irony. When TVS Motors took over the company from receivership in 2020, it knew what had been acquired: “One brand and one hundred and twenty-eight years of history.” Innovating in 2026, however, means something different than in the past. The most significant change concerns the organizational structure: in the motorcycle industry, design traditionally goes back to engineering, but Norton has reversed this logic. “I report directly to the CEO,” explains Skinner. “We are to all intents and purposes a design-led company, a rather unusual governance in the sector.” This has also guided the definition of a new target: younger, more heterogeneous, more design-conscious customers, to be reached with a stylistic strategy centred on modernity and responsiveness, all concepts that are “rather unusual in the world of motorcycles”.
The result is visible in the two superbikes Manx and Manx R: full carbon fiber bodywork, no spoilers, no broken surfaces, no visible screws. “We weren’t bound by the racing regulations,” explains Skinner. An aesthetic radically different from the norm, which also reflects the unique nature of the vehicle: “The rider interacts with practically every surface of the bike while riding it. It is a true integration between design and engineering.”
If Norton reinvents a legacy, Novus starts from a blank sheet of paper. The project was born sixteen years ago as a degree thesis, developed in secret during the Volkswagen years of the founders, and only in 2019 was it shown for the first time. Presented at the CES in Las Vegas, the vehicle is described as revolutionary. Novus combines e-bikes, scooters and motorcycles in what it calls urban light pipe – lightness, stability, simplicity. The monocoque chassis integrates the battery, ECU and electronic management system, with ninety percent of the components produced in Europe. The first German premium OEM in the segment for thirty-two years, it has already delivered the first units from Germany to Spain. The vision goes beyond mobility: “My mission is not only to transform urban transport, but to create a way of life,” explains COO Hannes Krieger. Hence the collaboration with Hugo Boss, with the brand’s texture woven directly into the first carbon layer of the bodywork. A world record.
