Honda talks more about its electric motorcycle plans
Last month in his end-of-year speech, Honda CEO Takeo Fukui vowed that the Japanese company would release an electric motorcycle in 2010. It's been a few weeks and the import of that announcement has begun to sink in. Honda is the world's largest cycle manufacturer, so an EV wearing the red badge is sure to inspire competition from the other established players. What's more, as one of the world's top automakers and the one that's arguably most concerned with its environmental standing, the electron-powered two-wheeler could be a harbinger of things to come on the four-wheeled side as well.As if our interest weren't already piqued, Honda has released another press release detailing its past eco-friendly motorcycle endeavors, which include hydrogen fuel cell-powered machinery, hybrids and fully electric concepts. After all of this testing, Honda says its electric motorcycle technology is suitable for both commercial and personal applications. Sounds great... just two more years to wait.
[Source: Honda]
PRESS RELEASE:
Electric Motorcycle for Honda by 2010
There are exciting plans in the works on the environmental technology front with the announcement by Honda's President and CEO, Takeo Fukui, that the company is currently developing a battery-powered electric motorcycle which emits no CO2 during operation.
According to Fukui, in order for Honda to sustain its business during the next 100 years of the automotive industry, the company will further strengthen its ability to continue advancing environmental technologies and to apply them to creative and attractive products.
Honda believes the characteristics of a battery can be better utilized in the area of motorcycles, which are often used for short distance travel.
In the pursuit of advanced environmental technologies for motorcycles, Honda has been developing and releasing products that use energy sources other than gasoline for quite some time. In fact, Honda has been developing electricity-powered scooters since the latter half of the 1980s.
In 2004, Honda unveiled a fuel cell scooter prototype in addition to the hybrid scooter and electric moped developed as prototypes for eventual mass production. The Honda FC Stack, which was originally used in automobiles, was applied to the fuel cell scooter, after being made lighter and more compact to
be the optimal size for scooters.
The 50 cc hybrid scooter prototype employs both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor and provides ample storage space.
The electric moped has a built-in 360kW light nickel hydrogen battery inside an aluminium frame. Being powerful enough to climb a 12-degree incline, the electric moped offers performance comparable to that of a gasoline-powered moped.
Honda is aiming to introduce the fully electric motorcycle to the market in approximately two years and envisages it could be viable for commercial as well as individual applications.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
travis 5:30PM (1/13/2009)
"The electric moped has a built-in 360kW light nickel hydrogen battery inside an aluminium frame"
I'm assuming 360kW is peak power? thats 1.8times the peak power of the Tesla Roadster in the tight confines of a scooter?
I call bull$hit..... Typeo maybe?
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travis 5:31PM (1/13/2009)
Concerning the 360kW
according to:
http://world.honda.com/environment/ecology/conservation-activities/product-development/motorcycles/technologies/index.html
Its a typo... and I think the person in charge of the press release doesn't know what they're talking about. In one part of the article, it says 360kW.... and on the graphic, it says 360Wh.
Both of those numbers are crazy, 360kW being the craziest... thats over 400hp.
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Peter 5:49PM (1/13/2009)
The 360Wh figure makes sense. The scooter they are talking about in that paragraph is a 50cc hybrid so a 360 Watt*hour battery pack (which has enough charge to provide 360 Watts for an hour) makes sense.
travis 6:11PM (1/13/2009)
Re-read the article....both the article and the graphic are talking "the electric moped" when they mention the 360 figure.... not the hybrid. The hybrid is talked about in the previous paragraph (and the next item on the graphic).
The article and graphic are filled with errors and are out of order.
Someone didn't proofread.
Tim 9:53AM (1/14/2009)
As long as it's not ANOTHER damn scooter!
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Honda Motorcycles 12:55AM (2/20/2009)
The scooter they are talking about in that paragraph is a 50cc hybrid, So The 360Wh figure makes some sense to me.
Reply