Honestly, this was a bit of a surprise really. A good one nonetheless.

Ever since this year began, the industry has been abuzz with the shift to the electric future, including one of the few exotic motorcycle manufacturers, Confederate Motors, who got rebranded as “Curtiss Motorcycle Co.” doing so. (Of course, the name change is due to the business impact of association with the US Confederacy.)

But venture capital fund Ernest Lee Capital believes otherwise. These chaps have successfully acquired the intellectual property rights to the Confederate brands and designs and revived the Confederate Motors Inc. to manufacture high end, extremely high-powered, big V-twin motorcycles in Birmingham, AL, all over again.

The company first started operation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1991 and shifted bases to San Francisco, New Orleans and finally settled in Birmingham, Alabama. Being an exclusive maker, the company managed to sell altogether 775 motorcycles before making the jump, and each one costs anywhere between $90,000 and $120,000.

In fact, Curtiss Motorcycles also launched the 2163cc 150 hp “Warhawk” motorcycle advertising as the final chapter into America’s darling configuration, the V-Twin, before completely switching to making electric-powered motorcycles. Curtiss has even showcased its "Zeus" full-blown exquisite electric-powered motorcycle concept, a hallmark to the future it is heading to.

Venture capital fund Ernest Lee then goes ahead and buys out all rights of Confederate Motorcycles a few days ago and immediately announced plans to refurbish the brand under “Confederate Motorcycles LLC”. It will continue to sell the last remaining Confederate P-51 Combat Fighters and FA-13 Combat Bombers and will also begin production of a new Confederate G3 Fighter model.

The Confederate website has also been updated with a number of new and pre-owned motorcycles and a story explaining plans to reintroduce new versions of the Confederate Hellcat next year followed by a new Fighter and Wraith thereafter. Each of them will be available in several customizable configurations.

Ernest Lee says that it did not want to “see the Confederate brand disappear into the ether.” Lee believes the Confederate name is “no more synonymous with racism than is ‘Rebel’ or the Confederate Flag itself. We acknowledge that there are some that disagree with our viewpoint but felt that allowing individuals to discuss their differences of opinion is paramount to the democracy in which we all live. We want to continue that tradition at Confederate; building innovative and original bikes that draw crowds everywhere they ride.”

We have no word on the financial aspects of this deal, but both Curtiss and Confederate names will bring in their respective models on to the scene. Curtiss will run on high-powered electric motors supplied by Zero and Confederate will run on gigantic V-twins.