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General Category => Electric Motorcycle News => Topic started by: Richard230 on April 02, 2019, 08:12:28 PM

Title: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: Richard230 on April 02, 2019, 08:12:28 PM
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/
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: JaimeC on April 02, 2019, 09:51:30 PM
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...
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: minronnee on April 04, 2019, 02:03:47 AM
Kymco is already doing this in Taiwan with the scooters. I hope the bike has them as well.
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: protomech on April 04, 2019, 02:48:49 AM
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.
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: hubert on April 04, 2019, 02:53:17 AM
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.
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: minronnee on April 04, 2019, 03:20:05 AM
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.
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: Richard230 on April 04, 2019, 03:36:41 AM
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. ???
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: minronnee on April 05, 2019, 11:18:05 PM
https://newatlas.com/honda-kawasaki-suzuki-yamaha-2019-electric-motorcycle-consortium/59178/
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: JaimeC on April 06, 2019, 01:57:08 AM
https://newatlas.com/honda-kawasaki-suzuki-yamaha-2019-electric-motorcycle-consortium/59178/

See?  My idea isn't that far-fetched after all!!
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: Richard230 on April 06, 2019, 03:34:26 AM
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.  ;)
Title: Re: Japanese electric motorcycle plans
Post by: Richard230 on April 13, 2019, 06:18:24 AM
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/