Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Richard230]

It looks like the Japanese are at least talking about electric motorcycle standards. No mention about actually building any for the consumer market, though. On the other hand even talking about the subject might make this an April Fools Day joke:
https://electricmotorcycles.news/the-big-4-japanese-manufacturers-are-talking-about-unified-standards-for-electric-motorcycles/

[JaimeC]

A standardized battery pack would go a long way to making quick, on-the-road battery swaps at authorized "battery stations" feasible.  Swapping a depleted battery for a fully charged one would be far faster than even DCFC and finally make electric as convenient as ICE in my opinion...

[minronnee]

Kymco is already doing this in Taiwan with the scooters. I hope the bike has them as well.

[protomech]

A standardized battery pack would go a long way to making quick, on-the-road battery swaps at authorized "battery stations" feasible.  Swapping a depleted battery for a fully charged one would be far faster than even DCFC and finally make electric as convenient as ICE in my opinion...

Battery swap is a very, very niche application - may work well in dense areas, think Gogoro. It is a recipe for failure in general use.

Tesla and A Better Place both tried, failed.

[hubert]

Yes, battery swap may work only if you are not the owner of the battery. Neither the vehicle, maybe. Therefore it "could" work with a fleet of identical EV's and batteries owned by an operator, where you rent the mobility service. But, as said, there have already been some failures in the business model.

[minronnee]

Protomech and Hubert,

Valid points.
I can still hope Kymco brings the scooter business model to the Major cities of the USA and that it eventually ties into the release of the bike... But you are correct this model has been tried and not gone well.

The geek in me knows that eventually the batteries will not exist and vehicles will run on some sort of grid but I probably will not be alive by the time we get there.

[Richard230]

When did the Japanese manufacturers ever do anything in "lockstep"?  I imagine that Honda's position would be: "its our way or the highway", especially as they have the most experience with electric power train systems. 

I don't see battery swapping working for the highway-legal electric motorcycle market.  About the best we can hope for is that they will all agree on a standard charging system and compatible components.

[minronnee]

https://newatlas.com/honda-kawasaki-suzuki-yamaha-2019-electric-motorcycle-consortium/59178/

[JaimeC]

https://newatlas.com/honda-kawasaki-suzuki-yamaha-2019-electric-motorcycle-consortium/59178/

See?  My idea isn't that far-fetched after all!!

[Richard230]

https://newatlas.com/honda-kawasaki-suzuki-yamaha-2019-electric-motorcycle-consortium/59178/

It sounds like the big 4 Japanese motorcycle companies are setting up a committee to establish battery and charging standards.  Good luck with that.  You know how efficient committees are when it comes to making a decision.    Also, the comment about the manufacturers first concentrating on city EVs doesn't sound like anything that is going to impact Zero, H-D or Energica sales anytime soon. 

[Richard230]

Kawasaki seems to be the first Japanese company to file a patent for a system to swap batteries.  This proposal is more advanced than I had expected to see so soon:  https://www.webbikeworld.com/is-an-electric-kawasaki-ninja-400-coming/