Major bike manufacturers join forces on battery swap tech

Giants team up to make swap-in, swap-out battery packs a reality

‘It’s vital to standardise the batteries’

Honda, KTM, Piaggio and Yamaha have signed an agreement to create a ‘swappable batteries consortium’ with a view to standardising batteries in electric bikes. Battery standardisation has been one of the key stumbling blocks to electrification, but it looks like this will finally be overcome.

The big issue with battery swapping has always been the cost of the infrastructure. If there are to be enough batteries in circulation, this would require enormous investment by a manufacturer. If everyone had a different battery type, it would be both expensive and wasteful. However, if a battery in a docking station fits multiple bikes, it becomes more viable. “Considering customer convenience, standardisation of swappable batteries and wide adoption of battery systems is vital, which is why the four member manufacturers agreed to form the Consortium,” says Noriaki Abe, Managing Officer of Honda’s motorcycle operations. “Honda views improving the customers’ usage environment as an area to explore cooperation with other manufacturers, while bringing better products and services to customers through competition. Honda will work hard on both fronts to be the ‘chosen’ manufacturer for customer mobility.”

What’s particularly interesting about Honda’s involvement is that, so far, they’re the only ones in the group to have already developed their own swappable battery technology. Yamaha have previously done a deal with Gogoro, the Taiwanese firm who have been pioneering battery swapping in the Far East for years, and Piaggio have an electric Vespa, but neither have created swappable batteries from scratch.

This also isn’t the first time this sort of project has been suggested with the ‘e-Yan Osaka’ trial in 2020 bringing together Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki. The group will start work in May to standardise the shape, size and tech specs of a swappable battery standard to fit mopeds and motorcycles. The hope is that by working together not only can they share costs, thus lowering costs both for the bikes and the infrastructure, but that they can work together to improve battery technology resulting in longer ranges and shorter charging times. If they manage it, the group think this should help overcome the concerns of consumers and bump us along the road towards E-bikes.

NORIAKI ABE, HONDA Go go go Gogoro have been battery swapping for years, with millions of miles covered in Asia

Already rolling Honda’s electric PCX already uses two swappable batteries under the seat Keep going The idea being that once you run out of charge, you swap to two fully charged units at a charging station Pay the price The schemes work on battery rental, with more expensive packages allowing you to use more batteries – a bit like a phone contract Other options Kymco have suggested a similar idea with their Ionex program but that involves public charge points rather than batteries