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Honda set to release electric motorcycle with underwhelming specs

harrisonpatm

harrisonpatm

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global.honda

Honda Announces New Electric Motorcycle “Honda WN7” in Europe | Honda Global Corporate Website

Honda Global | Honda has unveiled its first electric motorcycle, “Honda WN7,” in Europe.
global.honda global.honda

There's not a whole lot of info, but some highlights:

Curb weight: 217kg
Estimated range: 130km
Cost: about $17k

Compare that to my amateur build, 3rd attempt:

Curb weight: 165kg
Actual range, not estimated: 140-200km
Cost: less than $5k

No wonder nobody wants to buy production electric motorcycles.
 
They're pricing that thing like there's a government tax credit at the end.
They could get another 10km range out of it by making a number of it's parts less anti-aerodynamic.
 
harrisonpatm said:
Compare that to my amateur build, 3rd attempt:

Curb weight: 165kg
Actual range, not estimated: 140-200km
Cost: less than $5k

No wonder nobody wants to buy production electric motorcycles.
Click to expand...
I bought a Ryvid Outest with the upgraded ASI controller for $6,000. Couldn't have built anything better myself, though maybe for less I could have cobbled something together. I was going to electrify a Honda Grom (still might as I now know more). My rough estimate was about $3k, me providing the bike. As I was new to all of this it would of been a trial to build a useable emoto. I kinda got waylaid by people posting their builds, batteries in particular.

When Ryvid had their sale I bit. Being 70+ years old, I felt I didn't have the time to build and ride. Not that the Outset is near perfect, but it works very well, outside of having a 40 mile range and an uncomfortable seat.
 
Last edited:
harrisonpatm said:
No wonder nobody wants to buy production electric motorcycles.
Click to expand...
Nobody wants to buy production electric motorcycles from the big manufacturers who overprice them. The offer for cheap EV bikes from China is booming, they're fully homologated street legal machines catching very low licencing regs here (AM / A1) meaning people without a motorbike license can ride them, and the prices are rivaling DIY. Just look at Surrons, Talarias, but also dedicated city bikes...
 
bananu7 said:
The offer for cheap EV bikes from China is booming, they're fully homologated street legal machines
Click to expand...
This is debatable and certainly subject to location. Your point is taken though. It just would be nice to have manufacturer options for people who want a fully legal electric motorcycle that's competitive. If not on range, at least on price.
 
Zambam said:
I was looking for a third build thread in your sig.

Anyway can you point where in the thread where you got actual range of 140-200km (which is very impressive)?

edit: I thought your third build is what's in your profile pic.
Click to expand...
Sure, I'll clarify. I don't have a build thread for #2, basically, it was a scrap/practice build that has since been retired and scrapped for parts. #3, my current, is the EX500 (my profile pic), which has the range of 140-200km that I mentioned. And I guess I don't have a specific spot in that build thread where I test range, but I can tell you after riding it for the past 1.5 years daily, that is indeed my range. My riding style is street, no highways, 60-100 km/hr. If I push the upper end of my speed limit and ride for an extended period of time at like 80-120 km/hr, then that's where I get a range of only 140km.

To be fair. The advice we usually give newbies converting a motorcycle to electric, is that you get range, top speed and acceleration... pick one. I picked range, that's what I focused on when selecting and building my battery. Top speed/acceleration isn't important to me. And yet, I still can take off faster than most of the cars around me, I can still take the highway for a few miles if I need to.

I guess my biggest question is, my bike weighs 50 kilos less than Honda's. What are they doing with all that weight, if not adding battery? I'm also using a relatively heavy steel frame from 1989. Presumably there's been advancements in frame design and materials since then? Especially regarding weight?
 
That looks like a really fun bike! So, are you doing wheelies like the kids in the adverts there? ;). I know I'd be tempted even though I am also too old for that stuff.

gromike said:
I bought a Ryvid Outest with the upgraded ASI controller for $6,000. Couldn't have built anything better myself, though maybe for less I could have cobbled something together. I was going to electrify a Honda Grom (still might as I now know more). My rough estimate was about $3k, me providing the bike. As I was new to all of this it would of been a trial to build a useable emoto. I kinda got waylaid by people posting their builds, batteries in particular.

When Ryvid had their sale I bit. Being 70+ years old, I felt I didn't have the time to build and ride. Not that the Outset is near perfect, but it works very well, outside of having a 40 mile range and an uncomfortable seat.
Click to expand...
 
I usually ride in eco mode, in sport mode I hold on and lean forward. I try my best not to wheelie. The only time I need sport mode is in entering a highway going up hill. Crazy quick in sport mode.
 
What does it cost to insure an e-moto? I assume similar to a gas moto, which is usually pretty cheap. I wouldn't mind picking up an Outset.... except I don't have room for one.

gromike said:
I usually ride in eco mode, in sport mode I hold on and lean forward. I try my best not to wheelie. The only time I need sport mode is in entering a highway going up hill. Crazy quick in sport mode.
Click to expand...
 
Not to be a buzz kiler but the Ryvid has its own, very nice thread, and I hoped to discuss the Honda bike here :)
 
I'd like to hear more about the Honda, too, and we probably would if there were any out in the real world for some of us to get our grubby paws on. Maybe someone will soon? But at $17k they will probably be pretty rare.

bananu7 said:
Not to be a buzz kiler but the Ryvid has its own, very nice thread, and I hoped to discuss the Honda bike here :)
Click to expand...
 
Right now it's just an announcement, maybe released next year. Who knows? I noticed, for example, there weren't any battery specs advertised. Perhaps because they don't have a supplier sorted for their full-scale production.
 
harrisonpatm said:
Right now it's just an announcement, maybe released next year. Who knows?
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure that if the announcements are already at local pages/dealers then the bikes are getting produced as we speak. Honda is a huge company that takes a while to get started and it takes a while for us to notice, but I don't doubt they will actually get it to market. Not publishing the specs isn't very atypical either, happens with gas bikes too and gives them wiggle room/prevents backpedalling if something is published in error.

What's more interesting to me is that for the past couple years we've been told that the Japanese Big Four was trying to cooperate on a common battery architecture, perhaps with detachable motorbike batteries. With this release it seems that at least for the street models we're not likely to see removable packs, and every manufacturer will optimize for their own frame design.
 
While this and similar are interesting, battery tech will need to get higher power density and more compact and lighter to really make e-motos close to as useful as their gas cousins since space for the battery is so limited.
 
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