Honda offers more clues about upcoming electric bike
We still have questions, but we at least have a better sense of what Honda’s first full-sized electric motorcycle will look like.
If there’s one thing Honda loves, it’s a dragged out reveal. So, rather than plainly show us its EV Fun Concept - set to become the Japanese manufacturer’s first full-sized electric motorcycle - it is offering us images of the thing wrapped in dazzle camouflage.
We assume that this - a load of teasing images of the bike - is the thing that Honda was teasing back in July. All this has shades of roughly a decade ago, when Honda spent a full year drip-feeding info about the Africa Twin. Whether people will go as wild for the EV Fun Concept remains to be seen.
Big Red first started teasing the bike at EICMA 2024, promising a “mid-size naked equivalent” with a fixed battery and car-like CCS2 quick charging.
The bike seen in the new images doesn’t digress wildly from the one we saw at EICMA last year - with the single-sided swingarm, thin LED headlight, and svelte bodywork all present and correct. Belt drive means riders won’t be having to fuss with a messy chain, and it seems a given that the large TFT screen will offer all kinds of connectivity options.
“The bike marks another front in Honda’s multi-faceted approach to zero emissions mobility,” states a media release that accompanied photos of the EV FUN Concept being tested in Germany back in May.
“We developed Honda’s first electric FUN model under the key concept of ‘Be the Wind,’” explains project lead Masatsugu Tanaka. “It offers a quiet and smooth ride unique to EV models and a sense of unity with the machine that can make riders feel like the wind.”
The description of the riding experience certainly piques our interest; how much smoother and quieter could the bike really be over offerings from, say, LiveWire, Zero, or Can-Am - machines that are notable for their smoothness and general lack of noise?
Outside of that description, however, a lot of questions remain unanswered. Such as:
What, exactly, does Honda mean by “mid-size naked equivalent?” Is it talking about CB500 Hornet levels of power (35kW, or 47bhp), or CB650R levels (70kW, or 93.8bhp)? The dazzle camo does its job in making it difficult to be certain, but certainly the EV Fun Concept appears to share components from those two bikes.
If we had to place bets, we’d guess peak power to be closer to the CB500 side of things, since more power output inherently means shorter range, and that tends to be a real sticking point when people consider buying eclectic.
Speaking of which: What is the bike’s range? And how fast will the CCS2 quick charging top up the battery?
At EICMA last year, Honda suggested a “cruising range” of more than 60 miles. That’s not particularly impressive and doesn’t really offer any progress from what electric bike manufacturers were offering a decade ago. But the quick-charging may help it to be less of an annoyance. Some Honda four-wheelers are able to charge from 10 to 80 percent in as little as 20 minutes.
Price will also be top of potential riders’ list of questions. The answer to that one, though, will definitely have to wait.
If Honda really is following its Africa Twin playbook in attempting to build hype for this machine, we can expect to see a handful of additional well-produced videos popping up over the next eight weeks, with the bike properly revealed at EICMA in early November.
“We have done extensive testing in Europe - where our customers are - to evaluate riding performance, charging, and daily usability, carefully refining every aspect of the model to ensure that our customers have a reliable ride that lets you focus on pure enjoyment,” says Tanaka. “A new Honda FUN EV is coming soon, and we can’t wait for you to feel it.”
For more motorcycle news, stick with Visordown.
Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
