Honda and Hitachi

Honda is teaming up with Hitachi to develop the next generation of electric motorcycles – and the agreement is being underwritten with a substantial £35 MILLION of what will be, effectively, start-up cash.

Both businesses have signed what they are calling a ‘memorandum of understanding’ which outlines how both of them are heavily getting into creating something electric (and, one would hope, serious) that we will be able to ride in the near future. Honda and Hitachi say that they both want to get the deal squared away by March and that the resulting new company will have set-ups in Japan, China and the USA (which, in turn, will see all three bases sell product and make the bikes).

While this may be the boost that is needed to get the gorgeous Honda RC-E concept (above) off the ground, we suspect that initially the new technology will be focused mostly on cars. It’s only a small step from there through to bikes though, and let’s face it, we all want to see a pukka Honda electric superbike.