Are you ready? For the revolution? That is what is happening in Japan right now, at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show. We say this because Honda just debuted an electric dirt bike prototype that looks the business.
The Honda CR Electric prototype was co-developed with Mugen, a company with close ties to Honda. In fact, beyond the fairings, you would have a hard time distinguishing the Honda CR Electric prototype from the Mugen E.Rex that re-debuted this week as well.
Both bikes use an aluminum twin-spar frame, and look very “Honda” in their approach to building a dirt bike. It also doesn’t surprise us to see that Nissin supplies the brakes for both efforts, and the same goes for Showa on the suspension side. What would you expect though, considering the close ties these brands have to Honda?
This is a project that is very much still in the family, and in the case of Mugen, that phrase is meant literally, as Mugen was founded by Soichiro Honda’s son.
With Mugen spending the last eight years competing in the Isle of Man TT electric race, and racking up five race wins in the process, the tuning brand has built a cache of EV experience. Surely, this is where the Mugen-Honda connection is at its strongest. Together, these two companies are forging a new era of motorcycle design.
Thanks to Japanese motorcycle journalist Tadashi Kono, we now have some high-resolution photos of the Honda CR Electric prototype. From these, we can begin to see what Honda has baking in its electric motorcycle oven.
Knowing that the Honda CR Electric shares a genesis with the Mugen E.Rex, we can see how far this project has moved forward in the past two years. In 2017, the project looked very much like a concept, but now in 2019, it is hard not to imagine this “CR” being close to production-ready.
While Mugen’s iteration has a more modern aesthetic, the Honda is very much a Honda in its appearance. I have no doubts that my better-informed dirt bike colleagues could pick out components that come straight off the CRF lineup, including the seat and bodywork…and that’s the point.
That the Honda CR Electric looks like it could roll right into a Honda dealership speaks volumes about where Honda is with this project. There is very much the feeling in the industry that the CR Electric project is a direct result of the work by Alta Motors, which was just starting to gain traction in the off-road world with its Redshift MXR and Redshift EXR models, before closing its doors after a failed acquisition.
This little Californian motorcycle startup shook the motorcycle industry by its old grey hairs into producing a competent electric bike that could compete on the merits.
Brands in the two-wheeled space have for the most part figured out that “saving the manatees” is not part of the electric motorcycle repertoire, that an “on the merits” electric motorcycle is the path forward for this new space, and that the brand that can provide a no-compromises approach to an electric motorcycle will find a great deal of success in the space.
The advantages of an electric motorcycle, just from a performance perspective, are quite stark. Once the weight, cost, and recharge times fall into an envelope of thermic-parity, the future for motorcycles writes itself.
It is hard to talk about the Honda CR electric prototype when we are blind to its specs, as Honda is being…well…very Honda about releasing particulars on the motorcycle. Looking at the battery and motor design photos though, we can make some assumptions about what Honda and Mugen have built.
For starters, the motor is co-branded with Mugen and Honda logos, which is interesting. One can assume that the motor being used is a permanent magnet alternating current (PMAC) design, likely capable of running at over 300 volts.
This ensures a high rotor speed inside the motor housing, which in turns helps build horsepower (torque being decided by the amperage of the battery pack, and thus also directly linked to a peak horsepower figure).
With Alta boasting 50hp and 42 lbs•ft of torque, we can expect the Honda CR Electric to be in the same ballpark, if not exceeding Alta’s numbers. The motor and battery look to be very closely integrated though, seemingly sharing the same overall structure, which is a very different approach than the one found from Alta and other players.
In this regard, the design reminds more of the MotoCzysz “suitcase” design that Michael Czysz created for his Isle of Man TT winning E1pc electric superbike.
The value of having such an integrated drivetrain is that it instantly becomes very mobile, and can be used as a platform for a variety of vehicles.
A motor, battery, inverter, and gear reduction, all bundled together into an aluminum box. It’s not the most organic shape – a problem that Zero Motorcycles still seems to struggle with – but the bare metal and machining features on them has a certain technical appeal, which helps please the disgruntled souls from the petrol-faithful.
Flipping to the other side of the machine, which no one has seen until now, we can see quite clearly the single-gear reduction that is being used, and is now commonplace in the space. Goodbye huge rear sprockets on electrics.
More importantly though, we can see the cooling lines to the dual radiator setup, which connect to the motor and also seem to flow to the battery pack. Thermal management is a huge component of the electric motorcycle equation, both in using the machines in anger when in saddle, but also during recharge time.
There is a working theory that Honda might be sharing the coolant path for the motor and battery, which would be an elegant solution to cooling both of these components, as it would decrease complexity and weight. This might be where the value resides in Honda’s powertrain “block” that we see on the CR Electric prototype.
The state of the art is rapidly moving past air-cooled systems, just as we did with brushed motors. It is easy to be cynical of these older systems, but when you consider the compressed timeline for these advancements, it is quite impressive how quickly problems are being solved and solutions created.
The same can be said of the steady advancements that we have seen in the battery space, with densities (and prices) getting more competitive each year. The current track of lithium-ion development will surely not be the technology that carries this space forward, but the promises of solid-state batteries – a technology that is only a handful of years away from showing up in production cars – do certainly get us to that tipping point of electric vs. thermic parity.
Looking at the Honda battery pack (or is that the Mugen battery pack?), we see that the physical volume is quite small. It would be hard to imagine more than 5 kWh of energy being stored in those cells, but it is difficult to really say without knowing their exactly layout, design, or chemistry.
What is interesting to our eye is that Honda extends a plastic brush guard around the battery housing, which itself is made of carbon fiber panels. This should make the pack quite robust, in terms of sustaining crashes, punctures, etc. Still, we wouldn’t be surprised to see all this plastic covering yet another metal enclosure.
Dust and water protection are critical for any dirt bike design, but even more so for an electric application. Debris and moisture in the battery pack could spell disaster for the system, and at over 300 volts, a short-circuit could be a terminal event.
More importantly though for production electric motorcycles, the issue of electromagnetic (EM) radiation is the new jam. Thermic bikes will have to contend with noise and greenhouse gases, for electrics the big emission is comes from having all these high-voltage, high-amperage systems that emit their fair share of EM rays. Remember the cellphone / brain tumor scare from the early 2000s?
Comparing the Honda to the Alta, we can see the power of building a chassis around an electric platform, which Alta was able to do, cleverly inserting their motor into the frame’s design. On the CR Electric prototype, the electric drivetrain is more of a retrofit.
This seems like the more primitive approach, which is a surprise from Honda, as the Japanese brand is good at finding complex solutions to the more benign of problems (e.g. the dual-clutch transmission). But, there may be a method to Honda’s madness.
For one, Honda has already perfected its twin-spar aluminum frame for dirt bikes. The idea of swapping a single-cylinder engine for a similarly shaped battery pack and motor might be an easy one from this perspective, especially in terms of weight distribution and chassis rigidity. Work smarter, not harder, I always say.
And again, we come back to the idea of giving the market something they already recognize. Dirt bike riders are already familiar with Honda’s chassis concept. They know it works, and that means that there is a familiar element to them when looking at the Honda CR Electric prototype.
It also means that any differences between the gas and electric machines isn’t due to a theory on chassis engineering, which removes variables from the development side of the equation, but also on the tuning side of things once its in the consumers’ hands.
Full credit to the folks at Alta Motors and their design – which started with a blank sheet of paper and asked “what if?” – but Honda has a distinct advantage here in terms of winning hearts and minds of weary consumers (and dealers).
Moving to the even more familiar, we see that Honda is using parts and pieces that every motorcyclist can recognize. Premium Showa forks and shock, fancy Nissin brakes, DID chain, etc.
I would fully expect a production version of this electric dirt bike to come in at the top of the category, as a premium offering to riders who want something different in their garage. One is already going to have to pay the price increase for an electric motorcycle, so it might as well come in at the top-end of the segment in terms of positioning.
This is another element that hasn’t quite been figured out by the electric motorcycle brands so far. On the price elasticity of demand for electric motorcycles, buyers of EVs are still very inelastic. This means that they are likely to buy something regardless of its price.
There are cheaper, if not better, options to electric motorcycles in just about every segment, so you have to be a little bit sold already on the technology and product to opt for the more expensive option.
While that notion will change with time, the performance end of the spectrum is still quite far away from following suit. Instead, it is better to recognize that competing on price isn’t an avenue for success in the EV market. Instead (as Tesla has shown), compete on performance and features.
Electric motors make instant torque, with very flat torque curves featuring on the dyno. Sell on that. Electric motors don’t have power pulses, and make much better grip on the dirt and road. Sell on that. Electric vehicles require very little maintenance. Sell on that. Don’t get me started even on the whole analog vs. digital argument that can be made as well.
As we have seen in the thermic side of the industry, if you want more, you have to pay for it. Electrics need to be sold on their strengths, and the marketing needs to communicate that those strengths are worth something more than what a comparable thermic motorcycle provides.
With that comes other expectations – namely, premium components. I lose my mind every time I see cheap brakes, suspension, wheels, hand controls, tires, etc on an electric motorcycle. It’s like trying to get twice the sex with half the foreplay…when you’re paying more for less, it just doesn’t sound like an enticing opportunity.
For example, a $15,000 (let a lone a $20,000) motorcycle should not come with budget brakes, suspension, or wheels. Period. If you want to sell a bike for half that price, then sure, budget parts are fine. There is a balancing act here, but once you go north of $15,000, the expectations really start changing.
It is hard to say if Honda really gets this notion (or if any of the OEMs do, for that matter). I look at the CR Electric, and I think they do…but then again, it is really easy make a concept bike look good. Why wouldn’t you, after all? What goes into production can be a completely different story, however.
I am intrigued though, and I am excited.
When Honda debuts a machine and calls it a “prototype”, those bikes have a funny way of becoming production models in the near future. The Honda RC213V-S started like this, as did the Honda Africa Twin CRF1000L and Honda X-ADV.
Honda doesn’t tease a machine just to tease a machine, and if those previous models tell us anything about timelines, then we could see a Honda CR-E dirt bike in maybe two years’ time (give or take a year, by my estimates).
That puts this concept near the point in time where solid state batteries should start showing up on production cars – a game Honda is very much a part of as well. That could make 250cc or 450cc dirt bike equivalents very possible given this particular form factor. 40hp, 50hp, 60hp motors are possible in this size as well, as are 250 lbs curb weights with this battery technology.
What premium would you be willing to spend on such a machine? $2,000? $5,000? It’s hard to say (keep in mind a CRF450RWE costs already $9,300 MSRP). But, I do know this: if it goes around an MX track faster than a gas bike, then enthusiasts are going to be lining up with their wallets at the ready. Fast is always fast, and the stopwatch doesn’t lie.
Source: © 2019 Tadashi Kono / Asphalt & Rubber – All Rights Reserved
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