Honda’s cult 1980s workhorse could be heading back to showrooms, as patents reveal a rugged new Motra with a choice of petrol or electric power
Honda has made some strange bikes in its time. The oval-pistoned NR750. The hydraulic-drive DN-01. The fold-up Motocompo. And high on that list we should add 1982’s CT50 Motra – a bike that seemed to take inspiration from military vehicles and construction equipment and paired its 49cc Super Cub engine to a secondary transmission that doubled its three-speed box into a dual-ratio six-speed.
Numerically the Motra was a flop, spectacularly failing to hit projected sales targets of around 45,000 per year. Only around a tenth of that number are believed to have been sold during a two-year run in 1982 and 1983 before the bike was shuffled into the back catalogue. That might suggest that, nearly 45 years later, it would be a forgotten footnote in Honda history, but instead it’s become something of a unicorn, commanding crazy prices for a small, utilitarian scooter when one comes to the market.
Now Honda’s R&D department is at work on a successor that shares the same starkly utilitarian appearance and rugged appeal, but introduces the novelty of a shared platform that, if it reaches production, will see it be able to be made with a choice of either a tractional combustion engine or an electric powertrain.
That’s a tactic that mirrors the actions of car companies. While many boldly embarked on the journey to future that they perceived would be entirely electric, developing clean-sheet designs around EV motors and batteries, recent trends have seen combustion engines clinging on more tenaciously than expected, resulting in a growing generation of vehicles that are offered with a choice of electric or ICE motive power.
Honda’s revived Motra has appeared in patents filed by the company that illustrate how its simple, tubular steel frame can be bolted, via removable mounts, to either the single-cylinder engine and transmission from the existing C125, Monkey or Grom – a direct descendent of the original CT50 Motra’s Super Cub-based single – or to a pack of batteries. In its electric form, the bike ditches the conventional version’s swingarm and swaps it for a motor-in-swingarm setup that looks like it comes straight from the existing e-CUV electric scooter.
Since the e-CUV has similar performance to a C125 Super Cub, and costs around the same as well, it’s likely that the electric Motra – let’s call it ‘e-Motra’ to match Honda’s current naming strategy – would be directly comparable to the ICE-powered version in both price and power.
In both, the simple chassis, ATV-like balloon tyres and Tonka toy styling from the original would be retained, giving an undeniably individual look and the practicality to have luggage strapped onto the front and rear racks.
