Honda set their sights on electrification with plans to introduce a plug-in sports-naked bike

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Honda have revealed plans to introduce larger battery-powered motorcycles to the European market as early as 2025, with top bosses now revealing to MCN a belief that their involvement in the sector could spark wider growth in the uptake of electric.

“Until now, battery development is not something that has been our main topic, but like any technology, the more you work on it, the better it gets,” Honda’s Masatsugu Tanaka told MCN. “If we stop working on it now, that will be like a natural end point, so what we’re trying to do is use motorcycles as almost a means to improve battery technology.

“There’s a lot more work to do, but we think we can make a lot of progress in the future.”

Project Lead Masatsugu Tanaka

Tanaka is the Large Project Leader (LPL) for Honda’s recently revealed EV Fun Concept – a minimalist naked roadster first shown at the EICMA trade show in Milan late last year, alongside a smaller EV Urban Concept reminiscent of a maxi scooter.

The EV Fun has been built as part of a wider Honda goal to achieve carbon neutrality in their two-wheeled range by the 2040s, and while the brand insist that a production version could go on sale as soon as 2025, the only detail they were prepared to reveal in the spec sheet at the November show was a claimed ‘cruising range’ of over 100km for city use.

Limited information

“As a long-standing motorcycle manufacturer, we have an advantage in as much as people know that what we produce will be reliable and trustworthy from a safety aspect as well,” the LPL continued. “We think it will help the market to grow, and that’s our intention.”

Honda EV Fun and EV Urban concepts

Despite the optimistic outlook, when asked directly whether Honda believes they can currently produce a larger electric motorcycle with a power, weight, and range competitive with a current combustion motorcycle, Tanaka was unable to provide a concrete answer.

“We’re very confident that the spec we will come up with will make the bike a very enjoyable thing to ride,” he added – suggesting the finished machine still requires a fair bit of development.

Assistant Vice President of Honda’s Electrification Business Division for motorcycles and power products, Masayuki Hamamatsu then said: “Honda’s concept is not only the spec, but also the safety, because lithium batteries can be very dangerous once they catch fire, so we want to avoid any problem – in terms of battery – to the customer.”

Assistant VP Masayuki Hamamatsu

Solid-state development

To help achieve this safer outlook, Honda have begun looking into the idea of solid-state EV batteries for the future – launching a new production capable plant in Sakura, Japan this month.

They’re smaller, lighter, more resilient, faster-charging, use more easily sourced materials and pose less risk of fire, as well as promising reduced costs. In short, they could be the saviour of the electric vehicle.

“We try to create the best product in the world,” Hamamatsu continued. “That is our job. Of course, if batteries improved a lot over the technologies, it would help us, but we always try to make the best bike.”

Honda electric bike concept side

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In order to do this, the electrification team say they have been using some of the data and technology already gathered from Honda’s electric car and Power Product (garden tools, generators, marine, and more) divisions.

“On a motorcycle the battery is not enclosed in the same way it is in a car,” Tanaka continued. “Making sure it is able to withstand the environment it will be working in; we also have the power product division we can work with as well. 

“In the future, it would be great to have the scenario where there’s almost a common charging facility across automobiles, power products, and two wheels – so everything was in perfect kind of synergy like that.”