Honda has been getting increasingly serious about electric motorcycles, but if you want to see just how weird the company thinks the future could get, take a look at the Honda EV Outlier Concept.
I got a chance to see the wild-looking machine in person at EICMA in Milan, where it looked like almost nothing else on the show floor. And that’s exactly the point.
The EV Outlier Concept originally debuted at last year’s Japan Mobility Show as Honda’s attempt to imagine an electric motorcycle that isn’t simply a conventional motorcycle with the engine swapped for a battery and motor. In fact, Honda describes the concept as looking toward the future of electric motorcycles beyond 2030.
The result is certainly unconventional.
This ain’t your grandpa’s SuperCub.
Instead of a centrally mounted motor driving the rear wheel, the EV Outlier uses motors inside both wheels, giving it all-wheel drive and allowing Honda’s designers to completely rethink the rest of the motorcycle’s layout. The battery is housed in that large central black body, while the rider sits extremely low and behind it.
Honda describes the design philosophy with three words: “Gliding, Ecstasy, and Low.” The first refers to the smooth, nearly silent feeling of electric propulsion, while the second describes the instant acceleration and massive torque available from independently controlled front and rear motors. “Low” is more literal: Honda deliberately dropped the rider’s seating and eye position to create an entirely different sensation from a conventional motorcycle.
There’s even a bucket-style backrest designed to support the rider under hard acceleration and let the rider pivot through corners around their hips.
Up front, traditional mirrors are replaced by cameras, while a wide digital cockpit can display things like lean angle, riding modes, front motor torque adjustment, and what the two wheels are doing in real time.
Will Honda actually build this thing? Almost certainly not exactly as you see it here. That’s what concepts are for.
But the EV Outlier is still interesting as a statement of intent. Honda is obviously still playing around with the freedom that electric drivetrains offer, and the company is asking what motorcycles could become once designers no longer have to work around engines, fuel tanks, transmissions, and traditional drivetrains.
And judging by what I saw at EICMA, Honda’s answer could get pretty wild.
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