YAMAHA Motor’s recently appointed president, Yoshihiro Hidaka, has alluded to a future of electric motorcycles.
According to a report by Nikkei Asian Review, Hidaka, who took over as president on Monday, said that Yamaha plans to add more powerful electric models to its line-up, including equivalents to the Japanese manufacturer’s 125cc scooters, with rated outputs of between 0.6 kW and 1 kW.
Currently, Yamaha only makes electric versions of its smallest scooters, including the 0.58kW EC-03, which reportedly takes 7 hours to charge and has a real-life range of just 14 miles.
Hidaka told the publication that teams responsible for developing motors and engines will become a single powertrain unit this month, enabling ‘resources to be distributed flexibly between electric and engine-driven models’.
He also plans to reorganise various operations related to automation technologies (e.g. industrial robots and agricultural helicopters) into a robotics department, in order to "expand businesses worth around 100 billion yen (£658 million) by a factor of four or five."
Prior to taking on the presidency, Hidaka had served as Executive General Manager of Corporate Planning & Finance Center, Senior Executive Officer and Director at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. since March 2017.
