Honda's Huge Leap Toward Viable Electric Motorcycles
Major OEMs have been slow to dive head first into the electric motorcycle market, instead letting the technology catch up.
It’s safe to say that electric motorcycles haven’t been a runaway success so far. Start-ups focused on electric-bike tech have been going bankrupt at a frightening rate, and the big players in combustion engine motorcycles have done little more than dabble at the fringes of electrification. But with the intention of electrifying not just its motorcycles but all its new vehicles by 2040 Honda needs to get serious about electrics and it’s doing just that by getting its first solid-state battery plant into demonstration production in January 2025.
Solid-state lithium-ion batteries are seen as something of a silver bullet when it comes to electric vehicles, both on two and four wheels, by promising not only higher energy-density than conventional li-ions but also more durability and the ability to charge faster. It’s a triple whammy of improvements that could be the key to a virtuous circle, making EVs lighter and more compact so they’re both more appealing and more efficient than today’s models.
Honda’s demonstration battery plant is ready to start proving if solid-state lithium-ion batteries is the technology the industry has been waiting for.
Honda has finished construction of the “demonstration” production line, a 295,000-square-foot factory that’s intended to provide technical verification of the mass-production processes that the company intends to use for solid-state batteries. It’s an important step, because while the benefits of solid-state have been shown, it’s not a tech that’s being mass-produced anywhere yet.
Honda’s demonstration battery plant will go online in January.
The key to solid-state batteries is the replacement of the liquid electrolyte used in a conventional lithium-ion cell with a solid material that does the same job. It means that while the cells themselves aren’t more powerful than existing designs, they can be smaller because it eliminates the need for a separator between the anode and cathode (the solid electrolyte keeps them apart) and allows them to be much closer to each other. That means the batteries can be smaller and lighter without a reduction in capacity, giving engineers more options when it comes to vehicle design. They can also use the increased energy density to pack more battery capacity in, or they can take advantage of the weight and size reduction to make lighter machines without sacrificing range or performance.
New models, like the EV Fun Concept that was shown at EICMA, are still full of compromises dictated by technology.
Furthermore, solid-state batteries eliminate many of the safety issues of conventional lithium-ion batteries. The solid electrolyte isn’t flammable, unlike the liquids in existing battery technology, and it’s tolerant of a wider range of temperatures. Rapid charging speeds are often limited by the need to keep liquid electrolytes within their acceptable temperature range, so solid-state batteries promise the ability to be recharged more quickly. That, allied to ever-improving charging infrastructure, helps to reduce range anxiety and means that customers might be happier to accept shorter ranges between charges in the knowledge it will only take a few minutes to refill, and benefit from even smaller, lighter batteries as a result.
Yet another bonus is that the solid electrolyte can’t spill if a battery is damaged and makes internal short circuits less likely even if the battery does take a hit. That reduces the need to make battery cases that are as strong and heavy as current designs, further cutting down on size and mass. That’s particularly important on motorcycles, where the battery is not only likely to be more vulnerable than it would be in a car but also makes up a larger overall proportion of the vehicle’s size and mass. Less battery weight means designers can use lighter chassis and suspension parts, smaller brakes and motors, creating further knock-on benefits.
Honda is currently committed to electrifying all its vehicles by 2040.
While the solid-state batteries from Honda’s demonstration plant won’t go into customer machines in the immediate future, it will inform the design of larger, mass-production facilities that will follow as well as nailing down the specifications of the batteries they will be used to manufacture. Honda says that solid-state batteries will start to be introduced to its vehicles in the “second half of the 2020s.” Last year, in its Briefing on Honda Electric Motorcycle Business document, the company confirmed that it intends to use solid-state batteries in the mid to long term in electric motorcycles, as well as reducing the cost of electric bikes by 50 percent by 2030. Together, those two changes could be enough to tip the scales in favor of electric motorcycles, even in the higher-performance end of the market, so rather than being forced to give up their combustion engines by taxes or legislation, buyers will choose to get the electric bikes for the benefits they offer.