Honda And Yamaha To Partner On EV Manufacturing, Battery Sharing

Honda and Yamaha announced plans for Honda to manufacture some electric scooters for Yamaha in the Japanese market. The scooters will be based on the existing EM1 e: and Benly e: and will use the Honda Mobile Power Pack e: battery and charging ecosystem. This could have far-reaching implications because it directly relies on a single swappable battery standard across brands, instead of each brand having its own bespoke battery and charger system.

You have to hand it to Honda and Yamaha.

Sure, they're competitors. But at the same time, in the battle for hearts, minds, and the outlet space required for two-wheeled EVs, both companies seem to recognize that it would be much more enticing for future customers to have a single battery system working across multiple vehicles.

That's especially true when you're talking about swappable battery packs that can be removed from machines and plugged into a charger independently. You know, like we've been doing with other, smaller electronic devices pretty much since rechargeable batteries have been a thing. 

I've been following the development of electric motorbikes with swappable battery systems around the world for several years now. From relative upstarts like Gogoro to seemingly slightly late-to-the-party legacy OEMs like Kymco Ionex, Honda, and Yamaha, it's been interesting to watch. 

But as I've been saying for years now, while two-wheeled EVs in markets that are already heavily dependent on two-wheeled delivery vehicles makes total sense, having as many different battery standards as there are manufacturers does exactly the opposite.

That's why efforts like the Swappable Batteries Motorcycle Consortium in Europe and Gachaco in Japan were both important steps toward making the integration of two-wheeled EVs much more attractive to regular riders. And now, it seems like Honda and Yamaha are taking their cooperation on two-wheeled EV development one step further.

On August 8, both companies officially announced plans for Honda to supply Yamaha with electric scooter models going forward. They'll be based on Honda's EM1 e: and Benly e: electric delivery scooters, which are categorized as Class 1 mopeds in Japan for licensing purposes. 

Crucially, both Honda and Yamaha categorize this partnership as extending to models for the Japanese market only at this time. But I still find it interesting to ponder what it might mean for the future.

While Japan is undoubtedly an important market for low-speed electric delivery scooters, it's certainly not the only place where that's true. And consequently, it's also not the only place where both Honda and Yamaha have been selling their existing two-wheeled EVs in the early part of the 2020s. 

Prior to the announcement of this partnership, both Honda and Yamaha had already begun trialing electric scooter offerings in various markets that are already delivery-scooter friendly. Places like Europe and Indonesia immediately come to mind. There's also been public discussion of what the best strategy to bring electric scooter options to India might be, at least on Honda's part.

All of this relies on Honda's Mobile Power Pack e:, which the firm has designed with more than just two-wheeled EVs in mind. Over the past few years, it's also teamed up with construction equipment manufacturer Komatsu, and also stuffed the packs into tourist boats in Japan as well. 

From the beginning, Honda has made it very clear that its Mobile Power Pack e: ecosystem is meant to power a whole lot of things, including possibly even your home or emergency equipment in the event of a natural disaster. What's that, you want an electric generator? There's a MPP-powered solution for that, too.

But back to the 'swappable' part of the 'swappable battery' concept. All these Honda products are meant to form an ecosystem, but what about non-Honda products? That's where a deal like the one Honda and Yamaha just announced could potentially be a major step forward.

For those unfamiliar, both Honda and Yamaha are involved in Europe's Swappable Battery Motorcycle Consortium, as well as Japan's Gachaco. While the SBMC was developing a different prototype battery system to be used across brands, Gachaco adopted a rebranded Honda Mobile Power Pack e: for the Japanese market. 

It also started rolling out public battery swapping stations on a trial basis in that market, so riders with compatible scoots (all Hondas, up to this point) could roll up and swap batteries with no problem. With this agreement to produce electric scoots for Yamaha that also use the MPPs, it will mean more options for customers that can use the same battery swapping ecosystem. 

Japan is Japan, and is not other markets. What works there won't necessarily work in other places; we know this. However, it's interesting to see that cooperation, collaboration, and competition are dynamics that don't seem to be mutually exclusive in this approach. 

Will this partnership on two-wheeled EVs go on to bear fruit in other markets, and bring its battery swapping ecosystem with it? Stay tuned.