Honda Begins European Demo Program for EV-neo Electric Scooter

In brief: Honda has agreed to begin a European demonstration program of the battery powered EV-neo scooter in July 2011 in conjunction with the Barcelona City Council in Spain.

Vehicle in the news

Make/Model: EV-neo
Manufacturer: Honda

The word

Honda will provide eighteen of the battery electric scooters to Barcelona to carry out daily research and monitoring of usage of the EV-neo in the city.

The scooter uses Honda's in-house 2.8kW brushless motor and a 0.9kWh lithium-ion SCiB battery pack from Toshiba. The motor outputs 0.58kW (maxing at 2.8kW/5,000rpm). It's capable of pulling a 12-degree grade, from 0mph, with 30kg of cargo on board.

The EV-neo also has a quick charger specially designed for it using a 200V power plug, charging the scooter to full in about half an hour. Regular charging requires about 3.5 hours. The EV-neo's total range is about 21 miles at 19mph on level ground and part of the demonstration's purpose is to determine an average, real-life range for the scooter.

Barcelona is particularly suited to the adoption of vehicles like this with about 30% of vehicles in the city being motorized 2-wheelers.

And so ...

Honda began lease sales of the EV-neo in Japan in April and they expect to sell about 1,000 units this year at $5,627USD.

Photo credits: Honda

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