Honda begins selling its silly little briefcase electric scooter in the US
A few months ago, we covered Honda’s unveiling of its smallest electric vehicle, the Motocompacto. The company has finally opened the order books on its little electric scooter, meaning you could own a new Honda EV for under $1,000.
Officially priced at $995, the Motocompacto is a modern-day homage to the classic Honda Motocompo motorcycle from the early 1980s.
The original 1983 Honda Motocompo was a pint-sized gasoline-powered motorcycle designed to fit in the trunk of a small car and give drivers a way to extend their reach into a city.
If you think keeping an oil-leaking motorcycle with a burning-hot tailpipe inside your hatchback is a recipe for disaster, then you’re absolutely right. That’s why Honda updated the Motocompacto as an all-electric vehicle.
And if you’re an Electrek reader, this news probably won’t come as a complete surprise. We covered Honda’s trademarking of the Motocompacto name last year and surmised that this was the likely outcome.
As interesting as an Oragami-style electric scooter is, don’t expect peak performance from the Honda Motocompacto. The small folding scooter has an equally small powertrain. The front wheel motor measures 490W and the top speed is a mere 15 mph (25 km/h).
The battery is listed as “6.8Ah,” though it’s impossible to determine the actual battery capacity without any info on the system voltage. A 24V or 36V battery would mean a measly capacity of just 163 or 245 Wh, respectively. Though this is intended to be a last-mile vehicle, so the “up to 12 miles” range is definitely within the tiny scooter’s design scope.
A 110V charger is said to recharge that battery in 3.5 hours and there’s even room to store the charger on board, just in case you want to recharge in the office under your desk.
As Honda described it, “Motocompacto is perfect for getting around cityscapes and college campuses. It was designed with rider comfort and convenience in mind with a cushy seat, secure grip foot pegs, on-board storage, a digital speedometer, a charge gauge, and a comfortable carry handle. A clever phone app enables riders to adjust their personal settings, including lighting and ride modes, via Bluetooth.”
Honda Motocompacto orders open
Orders opened for the Motocompacto today, with riders given three options. They can either order online, or visit a local Honda or Acura dealer to buy it in person.
For those ordering from the comfort of their computer chair (or bathroom), keep in mind that you’ll have to select a local Honda or Acura dealer to place the online order through, though it’s pretty easy to do it directly from Honda’s site. You can choose home delivery or an in-person pickup at the dealership while placing the order online.
You should also note that the US $995 price might not stick. There will likely be added taxes to toss on, and you may have local dealer fees. Checking the price for the dealer closest to my family in Florida, it looks like the sticker shock amounts to US $1,243. If I select a dealership a few miles down the road, it drops to US $1,044. Opting for a dealer in Los Angeles nets me the sweet US $995 price, though that’d be quite a road trip on the way back.
Electrek’s Take
It’s a silly thing, but I kind of love it. The fact that wheels, seat, and handlebars fold in is an excellent design that makes it easy to stash somewhere. You slide it in the back of a closet, under a bed, or even in a car trunk.
Yea, it’s a bit pricey for the performance, but you’re largely paying for the engineering and the Honda badge. Plus, I’m guessing you could roll back into your local Honda dealer if you ever needed service. They might look at you strangely, but it’s still a Honda after all.
And you know what they say, “You meet the nicest people on a Honda.”
Oh, and why yes, I did buy one this morning. How did you know? Is it because I have a reputation to keep up? Stay tuned to hear what I think of this fun-looking little runabout.
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![Day 1 of the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025 [Gallery]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/07/54629423281_6315c46dff_k.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Today was the official start of racing at the Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix 2025! There was a tremendous energy (and heat) on the ground at NCM Motorsports Park as nearly a dozen teams took to the track. Currently, as of writing, Stanford is ranked #1 in the SOV (Single-Occupant Vehicle) class with 68 registered laps. However, the fastest lap so far belongs to UC Berkeley, which clocked a 4:45 on the 3.15-mile track. That’s an average speed of just under 40 mph on nothing but solar energy. Not bad!
In the MOV (Multi-Occupant Vehicle) class, Polytechnique Montréal is narrowly ahead of Appalachian State by just 4 laps. At last year’s formula sun race, Polytechnique Montréal took first place overall in this class, and the team hopes to repeat that success. It’s still too early for prediction though, and anything can happen between now and the final day of racing on Saturday.
Congrats to the teams that made it on track today. We look forward to seeing even more out there tomorrow. In the meantime, here are some shots from today via the event’s wonderful photographer Cora Kennedy.
Stay tuned for more!
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The numbers are in and they are all bad for Tesla fans – the company sold just 5,000 Cybertruck models in Q4 of 2025, and built some 30% more “other” vehicles than it delivered. It just gets worse and worse, on today’s tension-building episode of Quick Charge!
We’ve also got day 1 coverage of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, reports that the Tesla Optimus program is in chaos after its chief engineer jumps ship, and a look ahead at the fresh new Hyundai IONIQ 2 set to bow early next year, thanks to some battery specs from the Kia EV2.
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Tesla has launched its new Oasis Supercharger, the long-promised EV charging station of the future, with a solar farm and off-grid batteries.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to the Supercharger stations, and CEO Elon Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
All of these pieces have been in place for years, and Tesla has now discontinued the Powerpack in favor of the Megapack. The Supercharger network is also transitioning to V4 stations.
Yet, solar and battery deployment haven’t accelerated much in the decade since Musk made that comment, but it is finally happening.
Last year, Tesla announced a new project called ‘Oasis’, which consists of a new model Supercharger station with a solar farm and battery storage enabling off-grid operations in Lost Hills, California.
Tesla has now unveiled the project and turned on most of the Supercharger stalls:
The project consists of 168 chargers, with half of them currently operational, making it one of the largest Supercharger stations in the world. However, that’s not even the most notable aspect of it.
The station is equipped with 11 MW of ground-mounted solar panels and canopies, spanning 30 acres of land, and 10 Tesla Megapacks with a total energy storage capacity of 39 MWh.
It can be operated off-grid, which is the case right now, according to Tesla.
With off-grid operations, Tesla was about to bring 84 stalls online just in time for the Fourth of July travel weekend. The rest of the stalls and a lounge are going to open later this year.
Electrek’s Take
This is awesome. A bit late, but awesome. This is what charging stations should be like: fully powered by renewable energy.
Unfortunately, it will be much harder to open those stations in the future due to legislation that Trump and the Republican Party have just passed, which removes incentives for solar and energy storage, adds taxes on them, and removes incentives to build batteries – all things that have helped Tesla considerably over the last few years.
The US is likely going to have a few tough years for EV adoption and renewable energy deployment.
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