Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1501265
VOLUME ISSUE JUNE , P133 them," a sleek, futuristic-looking E-motorcycle. Of course, we had to sample the goods, and I'd call it similar to a 650-ish sport na- ked that I wouldn't mind spend- ing more time on. Like the folks at Rawrr, the Ryvid booth stayed plenty busy—out of t-shirts and their staff visibly exhausted by the end of the day on Saturday, still with Sunday left to go. Clearly this is a consumer crowd with a fair number of motorcycle endorsements, many cruising the show with their own helmets, and curious about the future of electric vehicles. Why was there no major motorcycle presence? Was there any inter - est, or even awareness of the Electrify Expo? Is anyone consid- ering it a worthwhile marketing exercise to appeal to this sea of micro-mobility users—perhaps they'd like to step into a full-size two-wheel experience? I'm certainly not pointing fingers, because it also occurs to me that this goes both ways—did the young Electrify Expo reach out to any of the major manu - facturers? Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki are all within 30 miles of Long Beach, but did they even know it was in town? It also oc- curs to me that perhaps I'm ask- ing the wrong question. Rather than wondering where motor- cycles are in the future of EV, perhaps we should instead be asking where EV truly is among the future of motorcycles. Industry Day took place the day before the show opened, and throughout the seminars, panels and speakers, a common theme that struck me was the focus on an "electric-powered future" (as opposed to a "zero-emissions future"). This crowd sees EVs as the one clear way forward, and appropriately so. After all, this isn't the Zero Emissions Expo. Still, there is more than one way to skin a catalytic converter, and a quick look at the direction of some of the major manufactur - ers might start to explain the lack of motorcycle industry pres- ence at the Electrify Expo. In a recent combined release from Yamaha Motor, Honda Mo - tor, Kawasaki Motors and Suzuki Motor, the four major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers revealed they are joining forces in a tech research associa - tion called HySE, which stands for Hydrogen Small mobility & Engine technology. It seems the Japanese brands agree that hydrogen combustion is the way forward for motorcycles. "To realize a decarbonized so - ciety, a multi-pathway strategy to address various issues in the mo- bility sector is necessary, rather than focusing on a single energy source," reads the press release. That unnamed "single source," of course, being electricity. "There are many challenges in the development of hydrogen- powered engines, but we hope to see the association's activi - ties advance the fundamental research in order to meet those challenges," says Kenji Komatsu, chairman nominee of HySE. "We are committed to this endeavor with a sense of mission to pre - serve the use of internal com- bustion engines, which epito- mize the long-time efforts that our predecessors have invested." In other words, "Long live ICE!" say the Japanese. In their divide- and-conquer association, Honda and Suzuki will focus on the research on hydrogen engines, Yamaha will study hydrogen refueling systems—a task in itself as hydrogen is an extremely light molecule and not easy to con - tain—and Kawasaki will study auxiliary equipment required for fuel supply systems. Even Toyota is getting in on the hydrogen- burning fun as a "special member" of the HySE association, along with Kawasaki Heavy Industries (parent company of Kawasaki Motor). Toyota, already producing hydrogen fuel-cell modules for heavy duty trucks, is lending their research, analyses and design experience to the team. While the Japanese remain polite in their wording, Stefan Pierer of Pierer Mobility (KTM Group) stated it far more bluntly in a series of interviews he's given in the last year. "Electro - mobility is nonsense that is pushed by politically uneducated politicians. An upsetting non- sense," Pierer stated in a 2022 VisorDown article. The key complication (or what Pierer calls "stupidity") comes down to energy density, which Pierer lays out in a simple comparison in a 2023 interview with Alan Cathcart. "A combus - tion engine is 0.8 kilograms per liter. If you want the same energy density with a lithium-ion pack, you're adding up to 10 times the size—10 times! I've been riding an enduro bike with 9 or 10 liters of gasoline, where should I put