Honda has plans to develop and bring to market an electric motorcycle by the year 2017, and this goal is mentioned in the company’s annual sustainability report under its mid-term environmental initiatives. Japan and China are cited as target markets in the report, alongside other emerging markets where electric motorcycles might perform well.
It is interesting to see though that Honda doesn’t mention major markets like the United States or Europe in its report, perhaps initially the company doesn’t plan on bringing its electric motorcycles to these markets.
Granted that this is a presumption and for all we know Honda could change its mind by the time such a product has been developed and is ready to hit the roads.
Honda has played with the idea of electric motorcycles in the past as well but it hasn’t been able to come up with something that’s commercially viable.
What makes Honda think that it will be able to achieve the goal this time around remains a mystery, and so far the company has not even publicly talked about an electric motorcycle even if it’s meant for a handful of markets in the world. We can only wait and see what happens.