Full charge for electric bikes - the ' Tipping Point ' Honda Benly-e
By Ben Purvis
The trickle of new electric bikes is turning into a torrent , with major manufacturers committing to a battery powered future …
For years , the world ' s biggest bike firms have played a waiting game , showing off plenty of electric concepts and dabbling with the occasional small-run models , but holding off on massproduction electric bikes until the market matured . Now we appear to be hitting that tipping point , with both Honda and Yamaha committed to electric bikes along with several European rivals . Honda ' s company-wide pledge to electric vehicles includes the target of being completely carbon-neutral , as a company , by 2050 . That includes not only a switch to electric power for its cars and bikes , but a shift to clean energy sources for its production facilities . The firm says 40 % of its vehicle sales will be electric by 2030 and 80 % by 2035 , hitting 100 % by 2040 . While most of those will be cars , the company ' s motorcycles are going in the same direction . Initially , the plan is to launch three electric models in the sub-125 cc class by 2024 , all using the battery-swap ' Mobile Power Pack ' system that Honda is dedicated to . A Japanese consortium of Honda , Yamaha , Suzuki and Kawasaki has already established a standardised battery specification to allow its future models to share common , swappable packs , almost certain to be based on the Honda-developed system , and a similar international consortium of Honda , Yamaha , Piaggio and KTM is also working towards the same goal .
Husqvarna ' s 50 cc scooter , the Vektorr
Honda ' s business-oriented , Asianmarket Benly-e and Gyro-e models already use the swappable packs , but the new models will be aimed at the consumer market . One will be a 50 ccequivalent scooter , the second a larger scooter that approximates a 125 cc model . The third is an electric motorcycle in the 125 cc class . Beyond those machines , Honda says it will also launch an undisclosed number of electric motorcycles for leisure use , hinting that these will be larger , higher performance machines . Yamaha , meanwhile , is on the verge of unveiling the production version of its ' E01 ' electric scooter . Originally shown as a concept bike at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show , the E01 is intended to compete in the leaner-legal 125 cc class . It uses a large , fixed battery instead of smaller , swappable cells . The firm has recently gained trademark rights to use the ' E01 ' name on a production machine and filed multiple patent applications that show a toneddown version of the concept , including production-style elements like road legal lighting and even a licence plate bracket . The bike won ' t be Yamaha ' s first electric offering - Yamaha has dabbled in the market in the past with machines like the EC-02 and EC-03 , but the E01 promises much higher performance and range targets than its previous attempts . Here in Europe , BMW is already established as an electric bike pioneer courtesy of the C Evolution scooter that it has sold since 2013 - and the soonto-be-launched CE-04 that replaces it . KTM has also been getting busy in the E-space for some time too , and has recently started to do so with its Husqvarna brand .
Husky ' s approach is initially twopronged , with a 125 cc-equivalent motorcycle - the E-Pilen - due to go on sale in 2022 . At the same time , a 50 ccmatching scooter , the Vektorr , will also reach production . Both machines are to be manufactured in India by partner firm Bajaj , which will also use the same technology for its own range of electric models . Like Honda , the KTM / Husqvarna / Bajaj trio have opted for a swappable battery system , using 48V packs that can be combined to add more range or performance . The E-Pilen , for instance , uses three of the batteries , mounted where the fuel tank would normally be . The chassis comes from the nextgeneration KTM Duke 125 , 250 and 390 , which will also form the basis of the next Husqvarna Svartpilen and Vitpilen models , and by parts-sharing with conventional petrol-powered models , Husqvarna should be able to hold prices down . The battery-swap system could also be used to reduce costs , potentially allowing the batteries to be leased rather than bought outright , bringing the initial purchase cost of the electric bikes down to match or even undercut petrol-powered equivalents . Further Euro electric bike news comes from Dutch project EMX-Powertrain , a collaboration between engineering firm Dohms Projecten and battery specialist ELEO Technologies , with support from Yamaha Motor Europe . The result so far is a prototype electric dirt bike , based on a Yamaha YZ250F chassis fitted with a purpose-made battery pack and a liquid-cooled electric motor with a single-speed
transmission . The prototype took to the track for the first time in May . Although not the first to try , the project is intended to boost the profile and show the potential of electric motocross machines . With noise issues regularly forcing motocross facilities to close down or forcing them to be established far from populated areas , the relative silence of electric bikes could open the sport up to a completely new generation - eliminating the major hurdle in the establishment of new tracks and allowing them to be more accessible . What ' s more , with relatively short races and a focus on punch out of corners rather than top speed , the sport is tailormade for torquey electric motors and small , low-range batteries . Despite the positive moves towards electric bikes in Europe , China remains the hotbed of activity for the sector . With millions of riders already using cheap , low-tech electric scooters , battery power has already been accepted as a viable option by huge swathes of buyers there , encouraging the development of increasingly highend electric models . The result is the establishment of dedicated electric sub-brands from established players . CFMoto recently created ZEEHO as a platform for its future electric models and now Zongshen has followed suit by creating its own electric brand , Cineco . Cineco ' s initial model range includes four moped-level offerings - the Honda Cub-inspired E-Classic , the Grom-style City Slicker and two conventional stepthru models , the ES3Pro and T3 , all models that were previously offered
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