Honda has announced that they’ve recently signed a letter of intent with KTM, Piaggio, and Yamaha in hopes to set up a ‘Swappable Batteries Consortium’ for electric-powered motorcycles and light vehicles of the future. In accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement, members of the Consortium agree that there should be a ‘standardized swappable battery system’.

This belief came into agreement with hopes to promote the use of electric vehicles and contribute to sustainable life-cycle management of batteries in the future. The main concerns also include shortening of charging time, lowering overall costs, and other aspects of electric mobility where this joint effort between the top manufacturers can hopefully solve.

In other words, these manufacturers will look into producing a standardised swappable battery system for future electric mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. The efforts of the Consortium will start in May 2021, where all members are encouraged to join this massive ‘world-saving’ effort.

According to Noriaki Abe, Managing Officer of Motorcycle Operations for Honda Motor Co., Ltd., “The worldwide electrification effort to reduce CO2 on a global scale is accelerating, especially in Europe. For the widespread adoption of electric motorcycles, problems such as travel distance and charging times need to be addressed, and swappable batteries are a promising solution. Considering customer convenience, standardization of swappable batteries and wide adoption of battery systems is vital, which is why the four member manufacturers agreed to form the Consortium.”

“Honda views improving the customers’ usage environment as an area to explore cooperation with other manufacturers, while bringing better products and services to customers through competition. Honda will work hard on both fronts to be the ‘chosen’ manufacturer for customer mobility,” added Abe.