SCHIPHOL, the Netherlands – Europe is the next market for Yamaha to introduce a series of electric personal mobility products. In the première of Switch ON program, Yamaha revealed this morning details of its future electric models. Eric de Seynes, Yamaha Motor Europe’s President & CEO explained more.
“Yamaha is about to launch three new ‘own brand’ e-bikes in the All Mountain, Gravel and Urban segments,” says Eric de Seynes. “Full details will be revealed during the summer, and these new Yamaha e-bikes will be available before the end of 2022 through Yamaha’s Powered Two Wheeler network, with the target to complete the European distributor set-up in 2023.” Today’s presentation is the next major step forward on the e-bike market after the announcement of the partnership with Indian Hero Cycles to open a e-bike hub motor factory in Ludhiana, India.
OEM partners
“We will continue to develop systems for our OEM partners,” explains Clement Villet, Director Powered Vehicles at Yamaha Motor Europe. “As the pioneer in e-bikes, we have already built 7 million engines since 1993. The market is growing very fast at the moment, some 5 million e-bikes were sold last year in Europe. Recent studies show that in the next 3-5 years, 50% of all bicycles sold in Europe are expected to be e-bikes. This is the moment to integrate our technology and know-how in complete e-bikes which combine our drive units and the well-known Yamaha riding ability.”
“The market is evolving and people are now looking for products which come 100% from us. They also want to benefit from the experience and know-how of the Yamaha dealers,” adds Clement Villet.
B1 speed pedelec
“To underline our future potential in every category of electric urban mobility, we also present the B01,” Eric de Seynes continues. “This is a new hybrid prototype that intelligently combines e-bike speed pedelec functionality with moped performance and all urban terrain ability.”
A concept model created by Yamaha Motor Europe in association with long-term partners Fantic Motor and Motori Minarelli, B01 will evolve into a production machine that will further expand Yamaha’s electric mobility range. According to Eric de Seynes production will start within one year. Already in 2020, he told Bike Europe that Yamaha would relocate its e-bike system production to Europe.
Electric scooters
Next to the e-bike range and the B1 speed pedelec, Yamaha Motor also introduced two new electric scooters. The all-new NEO – a smart, accessible and high quality ‘50cc-equivalent’ electric scooter was already displayed at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show as the E02 prototype. The ‘125cc-equivalent’ electric scooter derived from the E01 prototype, was also displayed at Tokyo.
“We are excited to expand our personal mobility range and open a whole new chapter in the history of the company,” concluded Eric de Seynes. “Backed by Yamaha’s world-class engineering capabilities and supported by a professional dealer network, the introduction of these new electric products and related services will inspire a new generation of customers.”
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