‘We’re a long way from having 100% renewable energy’ - Bosch’s bike boss on zero emission technology

With global political leaders, and influential thinkers demanding an ever greener society and less reliance on fossil fuels, the motorcycle industry finds itself at a difficult crossroads. 

Although some brands are already pouring millions of pounds and development hours into battery power, others have openly come out in favour of e-fuels, with a further group also actively exploring the potential of hydrogen power in fuels cells or combustion engines.

All solutions have their advantages; however they also face difficulties including packaging, cost, infrastructure, and energy storage. What’s more, governments across the world have differing stipulations and timeframes with which to go green – with the UK currently proposing the phase out of a number of petrol motorcycle types in 2030.   

To provide a clearer global picture, MCN booked a meeting with Geoff Liersch, Head of Bosch’s Two-Wheeler and Powersports unit, at the recent Eicma show in Milan.

The German company work on multiple facets of motorcycle technological innovation, developing the first ABS system for 1988. These days, they work on electronic safety systems such as lean sensitive cornering ABS, stability control systems, plus electric motors, and even the efficiency of combustion engines. They are also working on hydrogen themselves, previously proposing 4000 filling stations by 2030.

“Hydrogen as an alternative fuel is obviously something we’re looking into,” Liersch told MCN. “But, for a motorcycle category, the physical tank that you need to do a decent distance is just not practical. So, therefore, I do not see that we have a technical solution that will run 100% hydrogen on a motorcycle.”

Despite his reservations, Kawasaki Motors Ltd’s Executive Officer Hiroshi Tomomori addressed crowds at the same show to double down on the firm’s development of the fuel source.

Part of a research group called HySE (Hydrogen Small mobility & Engine technology) alongside Suzuki, Yamaha, and Honda, the Kawasaki boss told the show: “We are actively supporting research as a member of the HySE.

“Hydrogen power will manifest itself at Dakar 2024 where a vehicle… with our experimental engine will participate.”

Instead, Liersch believes partial hydrogen injection could be a solution for motorcycles, however this will depend on the legislation. These rulings differ across the globe, leading Geoff to believe that there won’t be a one size fits all measure applicable to all markets.

He also states that he absolutely sees motorcycles as part of the solution to future transport – providing a vital resource to many emerging markets.

“Legislation should just say what we need as an outcome in regard to emissions,” he added. “I don’t believe that we should say ‘you must use this technology, you must use that technology’ because you’ll end up not getting the best technology.

“Is electrification a solution? At the moment, in some categories, absolutely. On the other side of it, we know that there’s markets where electrification doesn’t work. Africa – you don’t find electricity hanging from the trees in the middle of nowhere.

“So, you’ve got to have alternative methods. For me, there will be at least two technologies that will be in there. One is obviously electrification and the second one [is] e-fuels, or hydrogen, or both.”

Zero at the tailpipe…

Focussing on electric, Liersch also believes that there should be a greater look at the entire production process of a vehicle, rather than simply focussing on the fact it produces zero emissions at the tail pipe.

“That’s somewhere again that I personally struggle,” he said. “I think we should be measuring from well to wheel and it needs to be done like that because electricity also has a cost associated with creating it. 

“Yes, it shifts the pollution from the cities to the country, but we’re a long way away from having 100% renewable energy for electricity.”

He continued: “It’s absolutely clear that electrification has zero tail pipe emissions because it doesn’t have a tailpipe. It doesn’t mean the electrification is actually a zero emission vehicle from one end to the other, and that – I think – is what we need to drive.”

Global sales

The other headache faced by manufacturers is that if governments approach the problem in different ways, there may only be the resources and budget to serve one solution. Liersch also shares this concern, saying: “The European market is actually relatively small.

“If only Europe decides that they want to push 100% electrification, you’re going to end up in a situation where an OEM today builds one motorcycle, and they distribute it all over the world…

“If you then say for one market only, whether it’s Europe or anywhere else, you must only have electric, that OEM will just simply say ‘okay, therefore I don’t sell you a bike anymore’ because they can’t afford to build a new bike just for a 5% market.”

Marine considerations

Bosch’s Geoff Liersch says that another external factor impacting on the future of motorcycle propulsion is the outboard motor market for marine vehicles. 

He said: “There’s another category that’s related to motorcycles and that’s marine engines, like outboard engines built by Honda, Yamaha, and brands that build motorcycle engines. The electric solution won’t work here, there’s no electricity in the middle of the ocean.

“So, we need to have an alternative technology for that industry as well. If those guys develop the alternative technology for that area, why can’t we use that also on the high end motorcycles?”

“I think we’ll have a convergence where we have electrification in one end, and alternative in the other,” he concluded.

Standards required

Alongside the acceptance of electrification, Bosch’s Geoff Liersch says that a greater standardisation of electric motorcycles is also required.

“Gasoline is standardised around the world. If you think about it, what is the standard? There’s a hole that you put it in. That’s pretty much it from a packaging point of view,” he said. “On the other side of it, it goes bang. Those are the two bits, it’s a really simply standard.”

“Now we come to electrification, and we’ve got 48v systems, 90v systems, 300v systems, we’ve got different plugs. How can we get to a point where we can have something similar to gasoline where anywhere in the world you can dump a bike… and go riding?

“This is another huge challenge, to get the standardisation in electrification and there’s a lot of politics,” the Bosch man continued. “At the end of the day we need something that’s standardised across the world, not standardised across the country. That’s something I haven’t seen before.”