There are exciting plans in the works on the environmental
technology front with the announcement by Honda’s
President and CEO, Takeo Fukui, that the company is currently
developing a battery-powered electric motorcycle which emits
no CO2 during operation.

According to Fukui, in order for Honda to sustain its business
during the next 100 years of the automotive industry, the
company will further strengthen its ability to continue
advancing environmental technologies and to apply them to
creative and attractive products.

Honda believes the characteristics of a battery can be better
utilized in the area of motorcycles, which are often used for
short distance travel.

In the pursuit of advanced environmental technologies for
motorcycles, Honda has been developing and releasing products
that use energy sources other than gasoline for quite some
time. In fact, Honda has been developing electricity-powered
scooters since the latter half of the 1980s.

In 2004, Honda unveiled a fuel cell scooter prototype in
addition to the hybrid scooter and electric moped developed as
prototypes for eventual mass production. The Honda FC Stack,
which was originally used in automobiles, was applied to the
fuel cell scooter, after being made lighter and more compact to
be the optimal size for scooters.

The 50 cc hybrid scooter prototype employs both an internal
combustion engine and an electric motor and provides ample
storage space.

The electric moped has a built-in 360kW light nickel hydrogen
battery inside an aluminium frame. Being powerful enough to
climb a 12-degree incline, the electric moped offers
performance comparable to that of a gasoline-powered moped.

Honda is aiming to introduce the fully electric motorcycle to
the market in approximately two years and envisages it could be
viable for commercial as well as individual applications.