Are the Japanese going to blow their opportunity?

[Smaug]

Further down in the forum, I posted about Honda and Yamaha's plans. They have nothing planned for the US, except tentatively.

I'm sure they will do a good job and make sure they comply with laws when they DO finally come here, but the question is whether it will be too late? They have let the Chinese and even American companies gain a foothold while they sit back and watch.

"Let's test in Japan first, then Europe. Maybe USA some day."

When they DO finally start offering something, they will be priced so high compared to the established brands that they will immediately fail and be withdrawn.

Slightly related: I see that Kawasaki has two eMotorcycles now: LINK

...or am I totally off-base? Will their quality be so trusted that folks are willing to pay the big bucks for them?

 

[HumanPerson]

WOW!
So, a CVT on an overpowered ebike?
SWEET!!

I can see alot of riders with powerful ebikes, with some new builds for sure

I wonder if they wait then BOOM hit the market with something affordable?

 

[Smaug]

Further googling points to Yamaha wanting to do electric dirt bikes and maybe eBikes, but nothing in the eMoped or eMotorcycle realm. Picking their battles. They'll have to compete with Zero for eDirtbikes, who are now well-established. Kawasaki will be competing with Zero for road bikes.

Honda? *crickets*
Suzuki? *crickets*

Honda already blew it by waiting so long to take hybrid cars seriously. Word is that they're partnering with Sony for future electrics.

Toyota has all but defeated Honda, and is partnering with Subaru: Toyota gets Subaru's boxer tech for the GR86 while Subaru got some Toyota electric tech for their Solterra electric SUV.

Nissan was the first of the Japanese companies to go all-in with an electric car.

 

["A"]

Honda's new electric scooter and e-bike show it's serious about electric two-wheelers

Honda has been on a roll lately, pumping out interesting and innovative electric two-wheelers including scooters and bicycles. Could the...

electrek.co

 

[Smaug]

Thanks for the link, "A". That one you shared the photo of is obviously an eMTB, rather than an eMoped, but it's good to see they're doing SOMETHING, at least. Seems Yamaha is way ahead of them on the eMTB thing.

I will post more in the Honda thread here.