Honda unveils EV-neo, promises Japanese sales in 2010

Honda has just announced plans to introduce its first electric scooter in its home market of Japan before the end of the year. The opening salvo in this round of electrified two wheelers will be a production version of the EV-neo Concept, which was first seen at the Tokyo Motor Show late last year. We wish it were the electric Cub instead, but nobody asked us for our opinion. Sad, really.

Honda sees the EV-neo primarily as a means for delivery people to get around busy urban areas, but it will sell the vehicle to anyone for both business and personal use. A lithium ion battery of unknown capacity will be supplied by Toshiba and will reportedly give the EV-neo a range of up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) on a flat road.

A depleted battery can be fully recharged in about four hours. Performance is said to be roughly equivalent to a 50cc gas-powered scooter, so you can probably expect speeds of well under 30 miles per hour from the machine's brushless motor. There isn't much more detail as of yet, but what little there is can be found in the official press release after the break.

[Source: Honda]

PRESS RELEASE

Honda Plans to Begin Sales of Commercial Use Electric Scooter, EV-neo, in December 2010

TOKYO, Japan, April 13, 2010 - Honda Motor Co., Ltd. revealed the latest prototype of the EV-neo electric scooter and announced plans to begin lease sales in Japan in December 2010 to businesses and individual business owners who provide mainly delivery services.

Honda developed the EV-neo, an electric scooter designed to provide the durability necessary for business use, envisioning a wide range of uses by businesses such as delivery services. Equipped with a lithium-ion battery and a brushless motor, EV-neo realizes excellent environmental performance with zero CO2 emissions in use. The battery is rechargeable using a household power source with attention given to the range per charge. Moreover, EV-neo provides performance equivalent to that of mass-market under-50cc gasoline engine motorcycles realizing a powerful ride even with cargo by leveraging the characteristics of a high-torque motor even at a low speed ride.

Under the key words of "quiet and clean" Honda held the world premier exhibition of the EV-neo concept model (under the name EVE-neo) at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show in 2009 as one of Honda's new-generation personal mobility products which will contribute to the realization of a low-carbon society while transporting people and cargo. The mass-market model of EV-neo is currently under development.

Honda will continue providing products with excellent environmental performance to more customers in order to contribute to global CO2 emission reduction efforts.