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Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki Debut ‘Gachaco’ Swappable Battery System for Electric Motorcycles

They Say ‘Gachaco,’ We Hear ‘Gogoro’

A view of Honda's swappable battery system, designed to take on lower-cc systems in direct competition with Gogoro

Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki – the Big Four – have been hard at work creating a swappable battery system to be compatible with all four brands; and while the official debut is still far from here, we’ve an update from Electrek that shows…a slightly lower-capacity offering than we were expecting. 

A view of Honda's swappable battery system, designed to take on lower-cc systems in direct competition with Gogoro

Don’t get us wrong – swappable batteries are a fantastic idea in an urban commute. It’s a clever system that means riders don’t have to rely on waiting for a charge and can scoot about as far as they like, provided they have enough boxes of juice to do the job. 

A view of Honda's swappable battery system, designed to take on lower-cc systems in direct competition with Gogoro

With the current boxes of juice appearing to showcase a 1.7 kWh swappable electric scooter charging platform (and that being the result of three years’ worth of dedicated work), it appears we have a long way to go before Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki reach Maeving’s level of kilowatt output…especially if they’re reaching for other global markets and trying to play direct competitor to Gogoro’s swappable batteries and charging network

A view of Honda's swappable battery system, designed to take on lower-cc systems in direct competition with Gogoro

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*Media sourced from Electrek, RevZilla, Cycle World and VisorDown*
  1. This is exciting! I can see stations where one can pull up, swap the battery and ride! I was not too keen on the electric motorcycle until as a favor to a Harley salesman friend: I went to a Livewire demo. I was amazed at the instant neck snapping power! Then my oldest son got a Tesla. That warmed me up to the concept. I’m a metric bike rider so this news is great! Great to see companies working together on something to make riding better.

    1. Hello Joe,

      Yes, that’s what we’re hearing on this end; the torque converts the best of us fossil fuel lovers, though the sound definitely takes some getting used to.

      We’ll be excited to see if the Big Four come out with bigger batteries later one. Currently, the power displacement is giving off scooter vibes…wouldn’t it be nice if these could also work with something as powerful as a LiveWire?

      Perhaps it is wishful thinking for now, though this platform would be an excellent addition if it went the way of Google and a charging network was installed as well.

      Agreed, this is very exciting!

      Cheers and hope you have a great week,

      Amanda Quick

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