Honda unveils standardised swappable motorcycle batteries

THE largest motorcycle manufacturers are jointly signed up to a global initiative to standardise motorcycle batteries for electric motorcycles. The result of the consortium’s work is this, the Honda-made and jointly designed eMaaS swappable battery system.

The group is made up of Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki, although Honda also has similar links to KTM and Piaggio. Its sole aim is to speed up the development and delivery of electric motorcycles, by standardising one of its most complex and expensive components, its battery.

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Standardising and streamlining the process of recharging a lightweight electric motorcycle likes – by removing the expired battery and replacing it with a fully charged one – is also hoped to help accelerate the uptake of electric motorcycles.

But just making a single battery design that works in multiple vehicles isn’t enough. Behind that, you need a colossal amount of charging infrastructure to make the new batteries from each manufacturer work.

More still, the batteries and charging system Honda is proposing is powered by renewable energy, and it’s even capable of being plugged back into the grid if needed. Honda sees the system as a sort of backup emergency battery that can be used for short periods in the event of an outage.

This is of course Honda’s take on the concept, with the other manufacturers in the group as yet to unveil their own designs. While the external shape and design of the other batteries will be much the same as the Honda unit – what lies within might be quite different.

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