Honda CB125R based electric bike under development. Good option for India?

Looks like Honda is working on a new entry-level electric motorcycle based on the current CB125R. The patent image (above) suggests a Neo Sports Cafe inspired EV which shares its key structural parts with the existing Honda CB125R. The latter is currently on sale in the international market and sits in the entry-level sporty street naked segment.

The image reflects what the fully finished product would look like which in-turn also suggests that a completely finished machine must exist somewhere within the company's research and development facility.

At the heart of the bike sits a small, lightweight electric powerplant and the size of the new electric motor is directly hinted by the bits bolted onto it. The entire powertrain has also been kept quite narrow, slotted between the chassis of the naked CB125R.

Moreover, key structural bits and equipment including its frame, suspension, and the braking system comes taken from the gasoline powered street bike. Also, goes without saying that there will be minor alterations to the bike's frame in order to accommodate an electric motor as well as batteries, but rest of the bike will be radically familiar to the petrol CB125R.

At the current stage there is no concrete information on its technical specifications and as with all the patents, it is rather hard to comment how much power will this version make on paper. Though it will be silly to expect the overall output to be much higher than its conventional counterpart since the current chassis has been designed to handle only a specific set of power and torque window. Anything above this and the bike won't be able to manage the output from the motor.

Honda already has expertise working on smaller electric drivetrain from the PCX e-scooter, and the fact that the CB125R which makes up most of the EV's construction is already in production, hint that it won't be a very expensive model.