Honda Previews Electric Motorcycle in New Year Celebration
Honda has been coming clean about its plans for expanding into the electric motorcycle market in recent months - announcing plans for ten all-electric models by 2025 - and has taken the unusual step of teasing its battery-powered future via a papier-mâché sculpture in New Year celebrations in America.
Honda sponsors the Rose Parade in Pasadena, which took place on 2nd January, and its own parade float led the festivities. Themed 'Forever Determined', the float was intended to showcase Honda's future and included a sculpture of an electric motorcycle.
Whether the sculpture, showing a Hornet-style naked sports bike with a central battery pack where the engine would normally sit, is actually representative of a future model isn't clear, it is more likely simply to be indicative, but it does bear a resemblance to some of Honda's patents for electric motorcycle designs.
Last year, Honda's electric bike teasers included silhouettes of two bikes with styling reminiscent of the company's 'Neo Sports Café' design ethos, used on the CB1000R, CB650R and CB125R, one a lower-slung, cruiser style machine, the other a taller, more traditionally proportioned bike. The short seat, that more conventional model merges into the fuel tank, as well as the hugger ahead of its rear wheel, are both similar to the style seen on the Rose Parade float sculpture, although it had a circular, upright headlight instead of the swept-back nose of the sculpture.
The two large Honda electric bikes are scheduled for launch for the 2024 or 2025 model years, and if either of them turns out to be ready for the 2024 range, then it's likely to be officially shown before the end of 2023, probably at EICMA. Even if not, Honda is ramping up its awareness campaign around the electric project, and further teasers and clues to the bikes' appearance and technology are sure to appear as this year goes on.