Honda confirms its swappable battery electric scooter heading for production

We just got our closest look yet at Honda’s latest electric scooter, the Honda SC e:, at the 2023 EICMA Milan Motorcycle Show. There, the company showed off the new design and confirmed it will be heading for mass production.

Don’t get too excited about riding one around soon though. According to a recent statement, the scooter is likely to debut in 2025.

Even so, that’s good news for a company that has historically dragged its feet on electric two- and four-wheeled vehicles until recently.

According to Honda, the SC e: features “distinctive, ultra-modern design lines, large flat floor and long wide seat. It will be equipped with two of the swappable Honda Mobile Power Pack e: batteries for a longer riding range, supporting customers looking for emission-free, quiet, compact urban mobility with the added benefit of being able to recharge in the comfort of home.”

It’s not the first Honda electric scooter we’ve seen up close and personal. Last year at the same show we watched the company roll out the smaller Honda EM1 electric scooter, destined for a largely European market. It was the first of 10 new Honda electric motorbikes that the company promised to unveil by 2025.

The larger SC e: electric scooter continues the company’s progress, though the clock is ticking if Honda wants to deliver all 10 promised electric two-wheelers in just the next two years.

The Japanese motorcycle maker has been hard at work on other interesting models as well though, including a concept electric bicycle and the recently released Honda Motocompacto. That pint-sized electric scooter is designed to be much smaller and more portable, allowing it to be kept in a car’s trunk and used to extend the urban range of a driver.

Unlike the company’s larger electric scooters, the Motocompacto doesn’t make use of Honda’s Mobile Power Pack e: (MPP e:) units, which are Honda’s in-house designed swappable batteries. The MPP e: batteries are Gogoro-style battery packs that each weigh around 10 kg (22 lb) and can be swapped at small kiosks placed around urban areas.

Honda has begun testing the system in Japan and India, though the current rollout is quite limited compared to the thousands of swapping stations already used by competitors like Kymco and Gogoro.