HONDA UNVEILS ELECTRIC
MOTOCROSS PROTOTYPE
ike a bolt out of the blue, Honda
motorcycles unveiled a fully electric
motocross bike in Tokyo to an astonished
motorcycling public. It’s no secret that Honda
is big into alternative means of propulsion,
but the advent of the electric motocrosser
took many of us by surprise.
The bike in question is an all-electric Honda
CRF450 with an electric motor in place of the
traditional internal combustion engine.
While Honda didn’t announce any technical
specs for the new ‘e-CRF’ - which some have
dubbed the CRE - the bike does appear to
utilise much of the factory CRF450 including
the chassis.
The motor was developed by Mugen
– Honda’s Motorsport arm and the team
behind Bruce Anstey’s TT Zero winning
machine – and features no gearbox between
the power unit and the rear wheel. This
means no clutch, and no shifter to worry
about like many of the electric off-roaders
already on the market.
While there is no current indication as
to how serious Honda is about putting
the electric motocrosser into production,
this move has shown the rise of electric
motorcycles is something that no
manufacturer, even the size of Honda, can
continue to ignore.