Since 2019, Japan’s big four motorcycle OEMs—Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha—have been working together on swappable electric vehicle batteries and associated technology. In the intervening years, we’ve had periodic updates that have shown the progress they’ve made so far. By September, 2020, plans were afoot to begin testing their first swappable batteries—which definitely seemed like promising news.
In March, 2021, the firms agreed on a single EV standard that their swappable batteries should meet. Much like standardized charging plugs for our electronic devices, that should make life considerably easier for customers, so that also seemed like a positive development. By November, 2021, Honda had unveiled its new Mobile Power Pack e:. It was the first unit to meet the Big Four’s battery swapping standards, so it was a big deal.
