The first electric Honda two-wheeler that isn’t a scooter has emerged in Chinese approval paperwork
Honda has been teasing us with electric concept bikes for well over a decade but despite ambitious plans to have multiple battery-powered machines in its range by the end of the decade we’re still waiting for anything other than scooters to reach production.
That is about to change, as Honda’s Chinese joint venture – Wuyang-Honda – has just gained approval for this electric motorcycle to go on the market in its homeland. Wuyang-Honda already makes several electric Honda scooters, and its U-Go model from 2021 pre-empted the visually identical EM1 e: that hit international markets in 2024. As such, the new electric motorcycle could become a global model in the future.
While the paperwork lists the bike as the WH8000D (that’s WH for Wuyang-Honda, 8000 for the power output in Watts, and D as a model identifier), it appears to be called the E-VO, going by the sticker on the side of the fairing.
The paperwork for the bike lists a few details to get a clue to its performance, and notably shows that there are two versions – both visually identical, but with different weights and top speeds, indicating that one has a larger battery than the other. Both make the same official power of 8kW, but that’s a rated, continuous output figure, and on electric bikes often not representative of the real peak horsepower, which can be substantially higher. The slower, lighter version of the bike is listed as having a 110km/h top speed and weighs 143kg, while the other weighs 156kg and hits 120km/h. It’s likely that the bikes use Honda’s Mobile Power Pack e: removable battery system, and that the heavier version has an additional pack – they’re known to weigh around 13kg, matching the weight difference between the two bikes. Given the size and weight of the bikes, it’s likely that even the base model has at least two Mobile Power Pack e: batteries, and the faster, heavier model has at least three of them. Given the shape of the fairing, the removable batteries probably slot in from above through a flap where you’d normally find the fuel tank on a conventional bike.
In terms of physical dimensions, the bikes are somewhere between a Grom-style minibike and a full-size machine. The front wheel is a 16-inch unit, the rear is 14 inches in diameter, and the wheelbase is 1380mm.
The styling has café racer overtones thanks to a full fairing and small screen, without appearing overtly retro, but is still clearly aimed at city users, hinting that – like most electric bikes – this will be a relatively short-range machine.
