Honda Shows Off Its First Electric Motorcycle

The Honda CR electric prototype is seen in action for the first time in this maddeningly brief video posted to YouTube.

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This seems to be a “demonstration run” of Honda’s prototype electric dirtbike. Our sources tell us the rider is Kazumasa Masuda. The video description says “The electric motocrosser 'CR electric prototype (CR ELECTRIC PROTOTYPE)’ exhibited at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show in the first round of the All Japan Motocross Championship held at HSR Kyushu on April 13-14, 2019 will be exhibited on the 14th. A demonstration run was conducted.”

As stated, the bike was displayed at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show but you can be forgiven for missing it, as the venue’s two main halls are each nearly 100,000 square feet and it goes on from there. The motorcycle shows we see in the US aren’t nearly so enormous.

Here at RideApart we are super interested in everything electric, as manufacturers seem to be scrambling to get in on the electric market. We covered the CR as it was in its static display at the show, but this is the first time anyone has seen it in action, and it is impressive.

The bike takes off quite quickly during the overcast day on what looks like a moderately muddy track. While there are a ton of spectators, and no shortage of cameras, this is the only video we’ve seen so far of the bike actually moving.

Because it’s a prototype we don’t know much about the bike itself. Honda has not released any numbers at all, so we don’t know a whole lot about it. If it follows the path of most prototypes, though, the final production version won’t look anything like this one.

While there are a ton of startup companies producing electric motorcycles for street use and for dirt use, the big motorcycle manufacturers seem to be a bit behind the times when it comes to electric versions of their bikes, or even completely new e-bikes. Harley-Davidson has introduced its LiveWire to much fanfare, and has teased some other, smaller electric offerings. Yamaha has dipped into the electric market with their TY-E electric trials bike. We’ve seen a bunch of patents but very few bikes from the big guys, so we’re keeping a close eye out.

Source: YouTube