Honda WN7 launched as Japan enters the electric bike era
By Ben Purvis
Despite the fact that Japan's 'Big Four' have been global leaders in motorcycle technology for at least the last 50 years it's taken a long time for them to make the leap into serious electric bikes. Until now none of them have produced a mass-made, large electric bike but Honda's new WN7 changes all that.
Previewed last year as the 'EV FUN' concept bike, unveiled at EICMA 2024, the WN7 looks nearly identical to the original show model, and far from being watered-down it has a longer range than was claimed for the concept a year ago.
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Full technical details will come at this year's EICMA show, but Honda has released initial figures including a peak torque of 100 Nm and a claimed that power is on a par with 600 cc ICE bikes. That claim is at odds with the quoted power figures, with Honda saying that the WN7 makes 18 kW (24 hp), although it's worth bearing in mind that electric bikes usually have two power numbers – a 'continuous' maximum that's used for type-approval purposes, and a 'peak' figure that can be twice as high, but can't be sustained indefinitely. It's likely that the 18 kW quoted by Honda is the rated continuous power figure, and that the peak will be much higher. The torque, Honda says, is on a par with a 1,000 cc combustion engine bike.
Honda hasn't revealed the battery's capacity but says the bike has a range of over 130 km between charges, and that it has a CCS2 charge socket, allowing rapid charges from the sort of DC chargers used by electric cars. At such a charger, the battery can be filled from 20% to 80% in only 30 minutes, while a full charge at an AC home charger takes less than three hours.
The bike's dimensions are akin to a 1,000 cc machine, with several suspension and brake components shared with the CB1000 Hornet, while the weight of 217 kg also puts it into that region. The price, in the countries where it's been announced, is also in the same ballpark as litre naked bikes. It's still clearly machine that's going to appeal more to 'early adopters' than mainstream riders, but a promising first step, nonetheless.
