Electric Honda CB1000R Appears in Patents

Detailed patent applications showing a large, high-performance electric Honda give the best look yet at how the Japanese firm is considering implementing EV technology into a future generation of bikes—including rapid DC charging and a structural battery case housing huge battery packs.

Honda is already intending to have at least 10 electric motorcycles in its global lineup by 2025, so the clock is ticking on getting such machines into production, and at least some are intended to be relatively large, high-performance machines. Early teaser images included a silhouette of a roadster with a shape and size similar to the CB300R, but the machine shown in the new patents appears to be an even bigger bike, borrowing components directly from the CB1000R.

Parts including the fork, headlight, and even the single-sided swingarm are straight from the CB1000R, and the machine’s overall proportions are similar, right down to a dummy fuel tank that mimics the shape of the CB1000R’s. There’s even a lockable “filler cap” on top, but instead of simply flipping up to access the tank, it allows the whole “tank” to be swung upward, revealing an AC charging port running straight into a power distribution box that fills most of the space within. The patent shows a removable AC-charge cable that, when unplugged, can also be stored under the cover by coiling it around the power distribution box.

That’s the plug you’d likely use at home when the bike’s safely in a garage and you can attach it straight into a wall socket for slow charging via your domestic supply. The patent also shows a second socket, with the distinctive outline of a European-style CCS2 plug, in a box just below the right-hand side of the seat. The CCS2 design includes an upper section for higher-powered AC charging, usually up to a maximum of 22kW, and pins to communicate with the battery management system, plus two large sockets for DC cables that allow ultrarapid charging from dedicated DC charge stations.

The batteries themselves are laid out in four slanted packs, stacked in two layers inside a structural battery case. They’re not intended to be swappable and fill all the space that would normally be taken up by an engine. The bike’s motor is mounted high up, just underneath the rider’s seat and above the front section of the swingarm. A set of reduction gears on the right-hand side of the bike take the drive down to a position concentric with the swingarm pivot, and the last of those gears is attached to a transverse shaft that takes the power across to the left of the bike, where the front drive pulley is fitted. That drives a belt to power the rear wheel.

Honda has opted for a liquid-cooled battery and motor, with a cooling system arranged underneath the battery pack and a small radiator just behind the front wheel. Above the structural battery case, there’s a fairly simple, tubular steel frame that provides mounts for the battery box and the steering stem, moving back to merge into the seat subframe at the rear.

Since the motor sits where you’d normally expect to find the rear shock, that’s been moved downward onto an underslung rising-rate linkage that’s essentially the same as the Unit Pro-Link arrangement that debuted on the legendary RC211V MotoGP bike. With no exhaust system or catalytic converter to accommodate under the front of the swingarm, there’s plenty of space freed up for the shock and its linkage.

While it’s extremely unlikely that the machine seen in the new patents will directly become a production model, there’s a strong likelihood that a real CB1000R-based prototype using these solutions is already hacking around Honda’s Japanese test tracks. As such, some of the ways that the components are arranged in the patent could well inform the design of future electric Honda streetbikes as the company continues on its planned path to becoming entirely carbon neutral by 2050.