Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki test shared swappable electric motorcycle batteries

The Massive 4 bike producers in Japan, together with Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki, are teaming up on electrical bike improvement and testing.

Particularly, the businesses are working collectively to develop a shared swappable battery platform for electrical bikes.

The foursome introduced the institution of a consortium to develop swappable batteries for electric motorcycles last year. However we haven’t heard a peep out of any of them relating to updates, at the least till now.

Within the first bit of reports to come back out of the consortium, it seems that the businesses are prepared to start testing their shared, swappable electrical bike battery design with actual customers.

The testing might be performed at Osaka College and might be often called the “e-Yan OSAKA” trial. As a part of the testing, college students and workers at Osaka College will obtain electrical motorbikes to make use of in the course of the trial. There might be battery-swap stations put in on campus in addition to at comfort shops within the space. 

The consortium has not revealed any technical specs relating to the swappable batteries but, however it’s being speculated that they’re prone to observe Honda’s lead with the swappable battery packs from Honda’s PCX and Benly electric scooters, in line with a report by MCN.

As Managing Government Officer and Head of Motorbike Enterprise Operations at Honda Noriaki Abe defined:

On account of repeated collaboration research amongst 4 home bike firms we had been in a position to collaborate with e-Yan OSAKA to confirm the frequent specs of replaceable batteries. We’re conscious that there are nonetheless points to be solved within the unfold of electrical bikes, and we are going to proceed to work on enhancing the utilization atmosphere of our clients in areas the place every firm can cooperate.

The e-Yan OSAKA trial is predicted to final for one yr, throughout which period the consortium will examine the effectiveness of the battery designs and the battery swapping stations to finally resolve on a closing design that might see full manufacturing.

Electrek’s Take

Whereas swappable batteries are already standard in electric scooters, they’re pretty uncommon for electrical bikes.

The power to take away the battery from the car permits condominium dwellers to cost their electrical bikes with out requiring storage charging or street-level charging infrastructure.

Nonetheless, the dimensions of most electrical bike batteries has to date precluded detachable batteries, at the least on bigger fashions. Most detachable batteries should not a lot bigger than 2 kWh, and thus a number of batteries are generally used to succeed in bigger capacities. My NIU electric scooter makes use of a pair of two.1 kWh batteries, every weighing round 11 kg (24 lb).

Nonetheless, bikes such as the Zero SR/F, which has a 14.4 kWh battery, would require round seven such batteries, proving impractical. Even carrying 50 lb of NIU batteries as much as my condominium to cost is a little bit of an endeavor, particularly if I deliberate on having anything in my palms.

It is going to be fascinating to see what kind of batteries are getting used within the e-Yan OSAKA trial and the way giant they’re, in addition to if these might be utilized in full-size electrical bikes or one thing extra akin to an electric maxiscooter.

What do you assume? Might the Massive 4 revolutionize electrical bikes if they will choose a shared format for swappable batteries? Tell us within the remark part under!

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