Honda’s electric (and other) dreams| Carole Nash

While the future of electric motorcycles remains in doubt with stalling global sales, shelved commercial projects from the likes of Triumph and a conspicuous lack of new products from the Japanese ‘Big Four’, Honda stands out for continuing to drive into ‘next generation’ technology.

Official sales statistics for 2024 released by the MCIA (Motor Cycle Industry Association) in January revealed that, although sales of up to 11kW A1 class electric commuters and scooters (ie equivalent to sub 125cc learner legal ICE machines) remain reasonably worthy, with around 2000 sold last year and accounting for about 8% of the market, those of bigger, ‘motorcycle equivalent’ electrics are pitiful and, in fact, have fallen off a cliff.

Total UK sales of over 35kW (47bhp+) equivalent electric motorcycles in 2024 was just 34 machines, down to less than half that of 2023 and under 0.06% of that of similar petrol machines. In other words: hardly anyone seems to currently want an electric motorbike.

Against that background, it’s perhaps no surprise, then, that the UK’s leading motorcycle manufacturer, Triumph, has now shelved its virtually production-ready TE-1 electric bike project, the MotoE race series, which was launched with a fanfare to run alongside MotoGP can now at best be described as ‘stagnant’, while most of the other leading motorcycle manufacturers are conspicuously silent on the subject of coming up with anything electric and significant – even Ducati, makers of the spec MotoE machinery.

Harley-Davidson aside, the market for full-sized EVs has been left exclusively to specialist players. Energica of Italy went bust last year, following in the tyre tracks of numerous well-meaning start-ups over the years, leaving American EV pioneers Zero and Harley’s LiveWire spin off hanging in as the only real option for those few riders wanting a big electric motorcycle.

Yes, Kawasaki is to be commended for launching its Ze-1 and Ninja e-1, electric 125-equivilents, and the Z7 and Ninja 7 hybrids last year (although, with the ‘125s’ starting at £7199 and the Ninja 7 rising to nearly £12k, for the most part they’re prohibitively expensive). Yamaha, too, has its 50cc equivalent NEO’s scooter. But, with nothing bigger so far mooted and Suzuki instead preferring to explore hydrogen fuel cells, the Big Four’s electric ‘pickings’ remain pretty slim.

Which is why Honda’s recent developments in the area remain significant. With its EM1-e electric 50cc equivalent scooter already on sale (for a very affordable £3299) and a commercial version, the CUVe due this year (and making a lot of sense), Honda’s latest electric offerings, including a full size, 47bhp+ ‘leisure’ bike due to go on sale later this year, give plenty of reason to remain optimistic. Price though remains to be seen, and for many the sheer expense of electric motorcycles is off-putting from the offset.

Honda is committed to a target of 30 – THIRTY – new EV models globally by 2030 and at the end of last year took the next steps towards that goal with the unveiling of two new electric concepts.

And while, yes, one of these, the ‘EV Urban Concept’, is merely a scooter, it’s also Honda’s biggest and most ambitious electric scooter yet. The second, however, is far more exciting in being what the company calls its ‘first electric sports model’ – the ‘EV FUN Concept’.

Honda said of it at the time: “it offers performance equivalent to a mid­sized internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycle”, which is pretty impressive in itself. More significant still is that, although so far only a ‘concept’, Honda also says its electric roadster “is scheduled for commercialization in 2025”.

In other words: a full size, possibly properly competitive, fun electric motorcycle from the world’s biggest motorcycle manufacturer is coming – and soon – with plenty of others planned to follow. At this rate, maybe credible, exciting – and affordable – full size electric bikes will soon take off, after all.

And nor is that the sole ‘takeaway’ from Honda’s announcements about its electric bike plans.

Also on display on Honda’s stand at EICMA was a new, high­ efficiency, high­ performance Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) concept which has been created as an alternative solution for ‘greener’ motorcycling.

The ‘V3 internal combustion engine concept’ is, Honda said: “being newly developed for larger displacement motorcycles” and is “designed to be extremely slim and compact”.

The water­cooled 75° V3 motor features the world’s first electrical compressor for motorcycles, which, Hondas claims, is able to control compression of the intake air irrespective of engine rpm, meaning that high­response torque can be delivered across the full rpm range.

The result could be traditional internal combustion character and performance with next generation cleanliness and emissions. Maybe that, along with Suzuki and Kawasaki’s exploration into hydrogen fuel cells, Honda’s exciting and ambitious electric plans and more, means there’s lots to be excited about motorcycling’s future, after all!