I'm fascinated by products you didn't know you wanted, until you saw them. One of my favorite examples is the Honda Motocompo, a cute, foldable motorcycle designed to fit in the trunk of the compact Honda City car from the 1980s. It was a neat little multi-mode two-stage transport idea – drive into town, park where it's cheap, pull out your mini-scooter for the last mile.
Now, four decades later, the idea could make a comeback – this time, doing double duty as a range-extending ride-on generator that can top up an EV as you drive. That's if these recently unearthed patents from the Japanese automaker – spotted in July by our old colleague Ben Purvis at Cycle World – are anything to go by.
The idea behind a range extender for EVs is to have a small gas-powered engine that you could fuel up and use to keep your electric car running when there's no charging port nearby. Typically they're super-efficient generators designed for maximum efficiency in that single job of turning gasoline into useable electrons.
The now-discontinued Chevy Volt and BMW i3 EVs had modest battery ranges, but could take you a lot farther with their range extenders. The 2019 i3 managed just 126 miles (203 km) on battery power, while its extender allowed it to cover a total of 200 miles (322 km).
According to the recent patent, Honda's twist on the concept is to pack that generator engine into a portable motorcycle – a la the Motocompo – so you have the option to ditch your car and ride on two wheels whenever you like.
As Purvis notes, the patent drawings feature the 1980s Honda City and its Motocompo in the trunk to illustrate the company's idea – although naturally, there are air intake and exhaust connectors, so it breathes in cold, fresh outdoor air and doesn't fill the cabin with exhaust fumes. Yeah, you'll be wanting to make sure those fittings are snug.
But Honda will have its work cut out for it when combining a range extender and ultra-compact motorcycle. For its i3, BMW had the luxury of fitting in a sizeable Kymco 647cc that put out 34 hp; Honda's 80s-era Motocompo had a tiny 49cc mill good for just 2.5hp. Something tells me that won't quite cut it given today's standards for EV range.
And while I'm charmed to bits by the idea of a pop-out motorcycle that you can launch from wherever you park, Honda is currently still testing the waters with these ultra-compact suitcase bikes. Last November, it began selling the Motocompacto, a US$995 electric reincarnation of the Motocompo that tops out at 15 mph (24 km/h), does 12 miles (19 km) on a 3.5-hour charge, and weighs 41 lb (18.5 kg).
The original Motocompo was twice as expensive, twice as heavy, and hard to fold and unfold. The new electric one – a standalone vehicle that's not packaged with a car – can be packed away in 30 seconds, and people seem to like it for what it's built to do: first- and last-mile rides in a tiny form factor. And of course, being electric in its own right, it's hardly going to be much use as a range extender.
Ultimately, like many manufacturer patents, it looks like a long shot. But this multipurpose Swiss Army scooter idea still tickles my imagination.
Source: Cycle World