Honda took to the EICMA Milan Motorcycle Show today to unveil its first European model with an electric drivetrain, the Honda EM1.
Honda EM1 unveiled in Milan
Electrek was on site at the show to visit Honda’s booth and see the new electric model in the flesh.
In a storm of creativity, Honda named the new electric two-wheeler using an abbreviation of Electric Moped 1. The EM1 will become the brand’s first electric model in Europe when it is released this following summer.
It’s the first of 10 new Honda electric motorbikes that the company promised to unveil by 2025.
If you can’t wait until then and want to hear the specs now, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Honda is playing the EM1 close to the vest and hasn’t released very many technical specs yet. The two main pieces of information we have are that it will use the Honda Mobile Power Pack as its battery, and that the scooter will have a range of 40 km (25 miles).
I was able to snag these photos of the new bike at Honda’s booth, but no one was sharing very many details.
With only one of Honda’s MPP batteries, the scooter isn’t expected to be very powerful.
The 40 km (25 mile) range is also likely to be figured at low speeds. In fact, it’s quite likely that the scooter will arrive to the European market with a 45 km/h (28 mph) top speed to classify as a L1e-B moped.
We can also glean a few piece of information just from looking at the scooter. There’s a rear hub motor that is likely a nod to affordability, a seat large enough for a second rider with pillion pegs to match, and a rear rack that should be useful for adding cargo or a rear trunk box.
While we don’t know much about the technical side of the scooter, Honda has made it clear that the company will use the EM1 to target younger riders.
As the company explained to the press:
The model is aimed squarely at a young demographic, looking for easy, fun urban transport. It is compact, flat-floored, with a smoothed styling that marks out its difference and unique identity within the Honda range. Perfect for short hops around town and for making journeys to work or college efficient, quiet and emission-free, the EM1 e: syncs neatly with modern expectations for urban mobility.
What is less clear is whether Honda plans to bring its battery swap stations to Europe or whether riders will simply charge the scooter’s MPP battery at home.
Honda has developed a Gogoro-style battery charging station that can allow quick swaps for depleted batteries. That would be ideal for the young audience that Honda is targeting, which includes apartment dwellers that often lack ground-level charging at home.
Honda has been playing catchup with the rest of the electric motorbike industry lately.
While the brand has been late to the game, a series of interesting patent applications have revealed several designs for new electric mopeds and even shared electric scooters.
With several more electric motorcycles expected to be unveiled in the next few years, Honda will likely soon offer a series of electric scooters, larger electric mopeds, and full-electric motorcycles.
Those models could join Honda’s existing small-format electric scooters that are currently available in Asia, but have so far failed to penetrate western markets.
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