Concept bikes abound at Tokyo Mobility Show
The Tokyo Mobility Show – previously known as the Tokyo Motor Show – has for decades been the spiritual home of the concept bike with Japan’s Big Four often unveiling wild visions of the future at the event. This year Yamaha has stepped up first by revealing its planned concepts ahead of the event and they include several bikes with a focus on electric and hybrid drive.
The craziest machine on display is the MOTOROiD:Λ, the latest in a line of MOTOROiD concepts dating back to 2017 when the first version was unveiled. The running theme has been the ability to balance unaided and a chassis that can change its geometry, and with the MOTOROiD:Λ, it’s the same again but Yamaha appears to have deleted the rider element entirely – there’s no seat or bars to be seen – and is leaning heavily into the on-trend idea of AI, suggesting the bike has independent decision making abilities and an AI learning model.
We’re still not quite sure what it’s for, though.
Yamaha’s second new concept is more car than bike. The three-wheeled TRICERA looks like a much more viable machine, though, with an appearance not unlike a Polaris Slingshot. Unusually, all three wheels can steer, something Yamaha says brings ‘a new steering sensation’. It’s electric, of course, with a sound control system that ‘tunes the electric motor’s sound to amplify the excitement.”
Jumping a bit closer to the realms of reality, Yamaha’s third machine is simply called ‘Proto BEV’ – prototype battery electric vehicle – and looks like a member of the brand’s ‘R’ range of sports bikes, just with an electric motor instead of a combustion engine. Yamaha again promises a ‘sound device’ to ‘communicate the bike’s status both visually and audibly’ but the basics here look like a relatively real-world electric sports bike, something Yamaha has been working on for a while, going by the company’s record of patent applications. There’s no word yet on important details like performance, range or whether a production model will follow, but the fact it looks so much like a normal motorcycle suggests it’s got a better chance of reaching showrooms than some of Yamaha’s other concept machines.
Next comes the H2 Buddy Porter Concept, a roofed scooter developed with the help of Toyota that features a very real-looking combustion engine powered by hydrogen rather than gasoline. Yamaha and Toyota, along with Kawasaki, Honda and Suzuki, are part of the HySE project to develop small, hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine vehicles, and this is likely to be the result of that tie-in.
Toyota developed the high-pressure hydrogen tank, and the engine looks like it’s the 125cc unit from the XMAX 125 and Tricity 125. Notably, it complies with Euro5 emissions rules – CO2 isn’t a problem, of course, since hydrogen emissions are largely water, but poisonous NOx can be a problem for hydrogen combustion engines as nitrogen from the air can get oxidised in the combustion process.
Yamaha’s Proto HEV was previewed earlier this year in videos demonstrating it in action, but appears in public for the first time at the show. It’s a ‘series-parallel’ hybrid scooter, able to switch between battery and combustion engine power so it can run in all-electric mode in cities but on petrol for longer runs, promising a 35% improvement in overall efficiency.
It’s joined by the larger Proto PHEV, a full-size bike that pairs the three-cylinder engine from an MT-09 to a plug-in hybrid electric system, similarly allowing it to run in either electric or combustion modes. Both the hybrid machines are well within the scope of current technology when it comes to potential for production, but given the weak sales of Kawasaki’s Ninja 7 Hybrid and Z7 Hybrid models, which take a similar approach, Yamaha might not be rushing to get them into showrooms in the immediate future.
