Get ready for the Swappable Batteries Consortium for Motorcycles and Light Electric Vehicles made up of Honda, KTM, Piaggio, and Yamaha. The goal is to develop standardized swappable batteries for motorcycles, mopeds, trikes, and ATVs.The Swappable Batteries Consortium for Motorcycles and Light Electric Vehicles will work with various standardization bodies for Europe, individual countries, and global organizations. This way, the new organization can create international technical standards that will benefit its members’ products.Noriaki Abe, Managing Officer, Motorcycle Operations, Honda Motor Co.
“The worldwide electrification effort to reduce CO2 on a global scale is accelerating, especially in Europe,” Noriaki Abe, Managing Officer, Motorcycle Operations, Honda Motor Co., noted. “For the widespread adoption of electric motorcycles, problems such as travel distance and charging times need to be addressed, and swappable batteries are a promising solution. Considering customer convenience, standardization of swappable batteries and wide adoption of battery systems is vital, which is why the four-member manufacturers agreed to form the Consortium. Honda views improving the customers’ usage environment as an area to explore cooperation with other manufacturers, while bringing better products and services to customers through competition. Honda will work hard on both fronts to be the ‘chosen’ manufacturer for customer mobility.”KTM AG CEO Stephan PiererKTM AG CEO Stefan Pierer had this to say: “Sustainability is one of the key drivers to the future of mobility, and electrification will play a major role in achieving this goal. For powered two-wheelers, the constraints of electric drivetrains regarding range, charging time, and initial cost are still evident. To overcome these challenges and provide a better customer experience, a swappable battery system based on international technical standards will become a viable solution. Considering the entire lifecycle, a widespread application of batteries compliant with a common standard will support secondary use as well as circular economy. We are glad to be part of the Consortium as we strive towards our goals in the e-mobility sector.”The Swappable Batteries Consortium for Motorcycles and Light Electric Vehicles will get underway in May, and is encouraging other manufacturers to join in. With the current range and charging times of electric motorcycles, activities such as cross-country motorcycle touring is impractical via electric power. However, if batteries can be hot-swapped at convenient locations, it may not take much more time to change batteries than fill a fuel tank.At the current time, none of the four motorcycle companies in the Swappable Batteries Consortium for Motorcycles and Light Electric Vehicles offer electric-powered motorcycles in the United States. This cooperation between Honda, KTM, Piaggio, and Yamaha may accelerate the appearance of electric-powered motorcycles from those four companies.Battery photo by Hilary Halliwell
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Ultimate Motorcycling’s weekly Podcast—Motos and Friends.
My name is Arthur Coldwells.
This week’s Podcast is brought to you by Yamaha motorcycles. Discover how the YZF-R7 provides the perfect balance of rider comfort and true supersport performance by checking it out at YamahaMotorsports.com, or see it for yourself at your local dealer.
This week’s episode features Senior Editor Nic de Sena’s impressions of the beautiful new Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST that is loosely based around the original FXRT Sport Glide from the 1980s. Hailing from The Golden State, these cult-status performance machines became known as West Coast style, with sportier suspension, increased horsepower, and niceties including creature comforts such as a tidy fairing and sporty luggage.
In past episodes you might have heard us mention my best friend, Daniel Schoenewald, and in the second segment I chat with him about some of the really special machines in his 170 or so—and growing—motorcycle collection. He’s always said to me that he doesn’t consider himself the owner, merely the curator of the motorcycles for the next generation.
Yet Daniel is not just a collector, but I can attest a really skilled rider. His bikes are not trailer queens, they’re ridden, and they’re ridden pretty hard. Actually, we have had many, many memorable rides on pretty much all of the machines in the collection at one time or another.
From all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
