Honda’s new electric scooter and e-bike show it’s serious about electric two-wheelers
Honda has been on a roll lately, pumping out interesting and innovative electric two-wheelers including scooters and bicycles. Could the Japanese automaker suddenly be taking the segment more seriously?
Honda is a veritable powerhouse in the automotive and motorcycle markets. But it’s no secret that the company has lagged behind many other major manufacturers when it comes to electric vehicles. The upcoming Honda Prologue is the company’s first electric SUV and its long-awaited debut appears set for next year. But it pales in comparison to the extensive lineup of electric cars, SUVs, and trucks produced by other manufacturers, many of which have already been on the road for years.
However, the company has just shown off two very interesting light electric vehicles that are targeted at a very different market: micromobility.
We’ve followed the Honda Motocompacto for several months as the small folding electric scooter has steered its way towards consumers. Just last week Honda finally opened the order books for the Motocompacto, bringing the $995 retro-inspired electric scooter to market. It may be small, but Honda sells it from its traditional automotive dealerships and treats it like any other vehicle in its catalog.
At the same time, we got our first look at an interesting electric bicycle concept from Honda, showing off how the company could enter the electric bicycle market with a promising entry. The bike eschews futuristic and difficult-to-manufacturer designs, instead opting for many off-the-shelf bicycle components that allowed Honda to focus its design energy on an innovative frame and construction.
The result was an electric bicycle that actually looks ready to produce, though we don’t yet have any indication that Honda is planning on bringing its electric bike to market.
These two examples may be the most recent, but they’re hardly the company’s only foray into electric two-wheelers. Honda has produced an electric version of its PCX electric scooter for years and more recently rolled out Honda Cub remakes that feature electric drivetrains.
The company even claims to be hard at work on developing four new electric motorcycles said to debut by 2025.
As urban landscapes become increasingly congested and the global community grows more environmentally conscious, Honda appears to have recognized the need for sustainable and efficient mobility solutions – even if that realization hasn’t made it into the company’s automotive department. Honda is diversifying its portfolio and aligning with the green transition, reshaping the mobility sector by venturing into producing electric scooters and potentially electric bicycles.
Electric scooters and bicycles offer many advantages over full-size cars (or even combustion engine scooters and motorcycles), including reduced emissions, lower operational costs, and the convenience of navigating tight city spaces. Electric bicycles even add their own significant health benefits as well. Honda’s move to embrace these platforms could suggest a strategic shift towards capturing the growing market of eco-friendly commuters, potentially signaling their growing interest in small-scale EV technology.
But the development of electric scooters and bicycles is likely more than a business expansion for Honda – it’s a signal of what’s to come. By focusing on EVs, and especially smaller two-wheeled EVs, Honda could contribute to the reduction of urban air pollution and the global carbon footprint, supporting the worldwide effort to combat climate change.
With its eyes hopefully finally set on the future, Honda may not just be adapting to the electric revolution, but could actively help shape it. A steady stream of light electric motorcycle startups has moved in to fill the void left by major manufacturers like Honda, but that doesn’t mean we should count such larger companies out.
If legacy manufacturers realize it’s not too late, they could play a significant role here. Kawasaki was late to the e-motorcycle market but recently released a pair of respectable, albeit low-powered models, showing anything could still be possible this early in the burgeoning electric two-wheeler market.
Honda appears to be aiming even smaller in the beginning with e-bikes and e-scooters, but filling that role is no less important. As the company develops and launches its small-scale electric vehicles, it reiterates the importance of key players in driving the transition towards a more sustainable and electrified future on two wheels.
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GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.
GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.
As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:
- seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
- two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
- two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona
Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.
“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”
GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.
Electrek’s Take
Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”
All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.
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While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.
Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.
As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”
The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.
“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”
The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.
The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”
The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”
In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”
Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.
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