The electric motorcycle market is a small and highly interconnected one, with a limited amount of suppliers and an even smaller number of actual honest-to-goodness motorcycle manufacturers. While Covid-era progress led to a series of highly-funded rapid advancements and flashy announcements, the last few years have been hard on the industry as funding and excitement have both dwindled, resulting in a smaller number of big releases. So it makes sense that people would jump at news that Honda is now producing its first electric motorcycle and that you can already buy it. The only problem is that none of that is true – finally some real fake news.
In the last few days, a number of news outlets ran with a story claiming Honda was now producing and selling its first ever electric motorcycle, a bike known as the E-VO. While some articles presented a fairly grounded and accurate analysis of the situation, others jumped on the more clickbaity bandwagon.
Like many rumors, the story does have some truth to it. There is an interesting-looking cafe racer-styled E-VO bike that was just announced, and its logo does partially include a red Honda badge, but that’s where things start to go awry as some articles played a bit fast and loose with the facts.
The main issues with the story heard ’round the internet are that 1) Honda has already produced multiple electric motorcycles, 2) the E-VO isn’t really a Honda, and 3) you can’t actually buy the bike, at least not the way many headlines would have you believe.
To be fair, even Electrek wasn’t spared, with its own story repeating several dubious claims seen elsewhere around the internet, among other smaller mistakes such as a strange swipe at LiveWire for not producing DC fast-charging electric motorcycles, which it famously does.
But let’s break down each of the errors or flashy clickbait headlines that duped many journalists and electric motorcycle fans alike.
The first major issue is that the premise is wrong. Honda has built multiple electric motorcycles in the past, though generally smaller designs with step-through frames. The E-VO would be a new design direction, taking on an eye-catching cafe racer design, but let’s not forget that models like the all-electric Honda PCX Electric were launched back in 2018. In fact, Visordown strangely mislabeled a photo of a PCX Electric, referring to it as an E-VO in its own article a few days ago. (And to be fair, not everyone whiffed on this one, with outlets like RideApart and CycleWorld giving even-handed and accurate coverage to Honda’s e-moto efforts).
Second, this motorcycle isn’t even a Honda. If you look closer at the badging, you’ll see it’s labeled as “Wuyang Honda” with the first word obviously printed much smaller in the logo to obscure it in favor of Honda’s much stronger brand reputation. To put it simply, the E-VO is produced by the Chinese company Wuyang, in which Honda invested in as part of a joint venture. Wuyang-Honda is a Chinese company owned by the major Chinese automaker GAC. It does produce some Honda-developed motorcycles for the Chinese market (like the CB series, CBR, etc.), but it also produces its own domestic market-only models. The latter is what the E-VO is. It’s not a Honda and it’s not produced by Honda. It’s produced by Wuyang-Honda, which is a Chinese company partially funded by the Japanese company Honda to make money from the Chinese market. It’s similar to how Ducati doesn’t really make those Ducati electric bicycles, but rather engages in a licensing agreement that lets another company produce them and print a famous name on the side.
And that brings us to the third major issue glossed over in the E-VO launch – that you can’t really buy it. Well, some people can, but not you. At least, not unless you happen to be Chinese or living in China. As mentioned above, this isn’t a Honda motorcycle that you can buy at a Honda dealer. It’s a Wuyang motorcycle that was recently launched in China and only sold in China. It wasn’t designed for export and doesn’t meet any other international regulations or safety standards because it wasn’t designed for any other markets outside of China.
Electrek’s Take
I’ve been a fan of electric motorcycles for a long time, riding and covering them with excitement as I’ve watched the industry progress. I talk the talk and I walk the walk. I don’t even own a car, as my family gets around entirely on electric motorcycles, e-scooters, and e-bikes. I don’t intend to unfairly call out other news outlets or even my own colleagues, but I do think that accuracy in reporting on such a nascent industry is important.
Accuracy in reporting isn’t just about keeping the industry well-informed but also ensuring realistic expectations among the public. Just like all of those stories popping up a few years ago to the effect of “GM is producing a $14,000 electric pickup truck” turned out to be clickbait (they were electric mini-trucks produced in China, for the Chinese market, by Chinese companies in which GM invested), the E-VO has also turned into something of a white whale. For years, riders have begged major manufacturers like Honda to get on board with electric motorcycles. And so when there’s even an inkling of progress on that front, the story can get ahead of itself.
That isn’t to say that Honda won’t ever produce a full-sized e-moto or street bike. Perhaps the E-VO will sell well in China and Honda will look favorably upon Wuyang’s work there. But the moment when an honest-to-goodness Honda electric motorcycle lands is still years away, and no amount of wishful thinking or creative writing is going to change that.
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