Honda's First EV Motorcycle Is Here. Suffers The Same Issue As Every Other On-Road EV Motorcycle

Don't get it twisted, I actually enjoy electric motorcycles. If they've got knobby tires, low weight, can wade through streams, blitz forests, and have tons of suspension, they're perfect machines. You'll get tired before they do. 

But, folks, what I'm describing above are dirt bikes. Off-roaders. Motorcycles designed to hit single track and nothing more. That's where the current state of EV technology in the motorcycling world actually works. Out in the wilderness and in your backyard or shredding a moto track.

And maybe, if I'm being generous, they also work in urban environments where charging is easier for commuter-based transportation—like scooters.  

On-road EV motorcycles, however—things like LiveWires, Zeroes (not the brand's new EV dirt bikes), and Honda's first-ever WN7—all suffer from a single fatal flaw that those mentioned above don't: Range. And the introduction of the Honda WN7 proves that point and should be a lighthouse warning telling them to stay away for every other EV manufacturer.

On-road EV bikes aren't ready to replace gas bikes just yet.

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Honda states that the WN7, which is now available in Europe, has a max range of just 87 miles from its 9.3 kW lithium-ion battery. Add a charge time of several hours using at-home charging, or about an hour for a full replenish via fast-charging stations, and that's frankly pathetic compared to its dino-drinking siblings.

Yet, Honda isn't alone in this disappointing regard. 

LiveWire and Zero have similarly bad range stats, and that remains one of the main reasons why each only sells in the low hundreds to thousands of units each year. Those lackluster sales figures, which will likely also hurt Honda, are due to range being inextricably tied to why people buy motorcycles, though. Motorcycles, specifically on-road motorcycles, are bought because of the freedom offered by them.

Motorcycles as transportation—not commuting via scooter, which much of the world does—is based around the ability to go anywhere at any time when the mood strikes. They're bought because you have the capability to not only pop on down to the shops or run your favorite canyon road, but if the mood strikes, you can do an 1,800-mile iron butt or go fully around the world with your best friend. But if you're concerned about range and charging takes what feels like years, what's the point of having a motorcycle? There isn't one, and the proof of that is in Zero and LiveWire's sales figures, and soon to be in Honda's.

Where that isn't felt is in the off-road EV segment, as those are selling in the hundreds of thousands, thanks to things like Stark Future's lineup, SurRon, Talaria, Niu, and others—and it's why both LiveWire and Zero have pivoted to EV dirt  bikes. They're not open-road freedom machines, as is the case with the Honda WN7. 

Honda, however, had to introduce something in the segment, only if to just continually push the envelope forward, but also to meet Europe and other countries' restrictive emissions targets. So I get why Honda introduced something like the WN7. But like its competitors, I'm concerned that its failure to be comparable to its gasoline brethren will do the segment irreparable harm long-term. And cause the industry to retract further before the technology is really ready for public consumption. 

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