Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki to work on unified standard for electric bikes

Sources in Japan claim that the big four Japanese motorcycle brands – Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki – plan to form a consultative body to discuss details about a unified standard for batteries, charging stations and more. This gathering is substantial because this move could dramatically increase usability of electric products to come from the brands.

A unified standard of batteries doesn’t mean that the four big brands will use identical batteries on their products; it only means that the batteries on these products will have the ability to be charged by the same power source design. Speaking of which, the likes of a unified standard for charging stations would prove to be monumental in increasing the reach and convenience of an electric two-wheeler. Moves like these could promote and speed-up the spread of electric motorcycles on an international scale.

Given the size and popularity of these four Japanese giants, we could other electric two-wheeler brands from around the world adapt this unified standard. We witnessed a move similar to this in the mobile phone industry, where manufacturers went from having their own numerous individual charging pins, and settle on three as standard – micro-USB, Apple’s lighting port and the USB Type-C. We are now at a point where it appears that the USB Type-C charger will take over the other two and be the standard for charging every mobile phone in the future.