Management
What Makes a Truly Honda Electric Bike? — The Passion Behind the Brand Promise ‘Expected Life. Unexpected Discoveries.’
POINTWhat you can learn from this article
- Honda announced its new brand promise for electric motorcycle business, “Expected Life, Unexpected Discoveries,” together with a new logo.
- To embody this brand promise, Honda has defined four core values.
- By combining the strengths cultivated through internal combustion engine-powered motorcycles with the unique value of electrification, Honda will deliver new value that only Honda can provide.
In the rapidly electrifying global motorcycle market, Honda is leveraging its technological expertise and insights cultivated over many years with internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered motorcycles to take on the challenge of providing electric motorcycle business.
In November 2025, at EICMA—the world’s largest motorcycle exhibition held in Milan, Italy—Honda unveiled its electric motorcycle business brand promise along with the Honda WN7, a model that embodies this vision. What is the “Honda Spirit” at the core of this brand promise? This issue of Honda Stories explores the background that led to its creation, the aspirations driving it, and the future Honda seeks to realize through electric motorcycle business.
Head of Motorcycle and Power Products Electrification Business Unit for Motorcycle and Power Products Operations, Honda Motor Co., Ltd. View More Close Daiki Mihara
Read MoreBuilding electric motorcycle business only Honda can create: the challenge of a new market
Honda launched its first motorcycle in 1949. For over 75 years since, it has continued to provide the joy of mobility through motorcycles. The motorcycle development technology, know-how, and customer connections accumulated over this time are irreplaceable assets for Honda.
The Dream D-Type, Honda’s first in-house developed motorcycle released in 1949
In 2021, Honda set a goal of achieving carbon neutrality across all products and corporate activities by 2050. To realize this, Honda established Electrification Business Development Operations in April 2023, marking its full-scale start of motorcycle electrification. Daiki Mihara, Head of Motorcycle and Power Products Electrification Business Supervisory Unit, recounts that during the unit’s early days, he and the assembled team repeatedly debated the question: “What kind of electric motorcycle should Honda create?”
One answer we arrived at while pursuing what Honda’s electric motorcycle should be like, was not to chase an electric-specific character completely different from our ICE bikes, but to combine Honda’s strengths cultivated through ICE models with new value only possible because it is electric.
When considering what only Honda could achieve with an electric motorcycle, we returned to the drawing board. We began discussions from fundamental questions: “What is mobility? What is a motorcycle?” “What value do we want to provide?” “What kind of future do we aim for?” The four core values we arrived at through extensive discussions spanning not just business units but design, development, and production were: “Free yourself from anxiety and barriers,” “Stimulate your instincts and sensibilities,” “Coexist with people and society,” and “Resonate with intellect.”
“Liberate with the freedom of movement”
By taking full advantage of the design freedom—such as new approaches to packaging and styling—, and control as well as riding support technologies unique to electric vehicles, Honda aims to free riders from anxiety and barriers, enabling stress-free and liberating mobility experiences.
“Inspire instincts and sensibility”
Building on Honda’s long history of internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycle development and its pursuit of fundamental performance in running, turning, and stopping, the powerful acceleration and quietness unique to electric mobility with an intuitive human-machine interface (HMI) will maximize the excitement of control, and stimulates rider’s instinct.
“Coexist with people and society”
Honda aims to create mobility that seamlessly integrates into people's lives through refined design that eliminates excess and the unparalleled quietness unique to electric vehicles. Furthermore, Honda will effectively use vehicle-to-vehicle cooperative control enabled by connectivity technology, avoid congestion and navigate to efficient route to reduce environmental impact. Honda will create a mobility society where motorcycles, people, and society coexist comfortably.
“Resonate with intelligence”
Through real time adaptive user interface (UI) responding to environmental changes and updating functionality, the motorcycle will evolve after purchase – becoming increasingly personalized with every ride. By leveraging Honda’s data to deliver new value, the possibilities of mobility tailored to each individual customer are further expanded.
Building on Honda’s core strengths—honed through ICE-powered vehicles—such as fundamental performance in accelerating, turning and stopping, and the high quality inherent in each of its motorcycles, Honda combines these with new value only possible through electrification to deliver unique offerings. Realizing this requires overcoming challenges not only in product development but across all fields, including design and UX*. Moreover, these challenges must be pursued under a unified direction.
As a brand promise—a concise expression of the experience Honda wishes to provide, encompassing these four core values—Honda established “Expected Life. Unexpected Discoveries.” (Co-creating with people a world filled with the comfort and excitement of “living as you wish” and “unexpected discoveries.”).
To execute these initiatives within a consistent worldview, Honda designed a logo for the electric motorcycle business brand.
* User Experience
Honda’s new electric motorcycle business brand logo announced at EICMA 2025
The passion behind “Expected life, Unexpected discoveries”
Mihara explains the meaning behind “Expected Life, Unexpected Discoveries,” which represents the experience Honda aims to deliver through electric motorcycle business:
“Expected life” means “living as you wish.” It encompasses the reassurance, ease of handling, and reliability that motorcycles provide as daily commuting partners and travel companions. This is the strength Honda motorcycles have cultivated, and the reason Honda is the world’s No. 1 motorcycle brand. We will carry this trust forward into the electric era while continuing to evolve.
”Unexpected Discoveries” means new revelations. It encompasses discovering new worlds through harmonious coexistence with society enabled by exceptional quietness, and the mutual resonance between rider and bike through connectivity features that naturally complement electric power. Furthermore, we envision these experiences not just provided by Honda or the bike itself, but co-created by people and Honda together.
Centered on Honda’s newly defined brand promise and four values, we will create new value only Honda can deliver, providing electric motorcycle business that deliver the joy of free mobility. We also aim to realize a world in which one in every two riders in the electric motorcycle market is a Honda user.
Delivering the sense of “Be the Wind” to the world, realizing an inspiring experience uniquely Honda
At EICMA 2025, the world’s largest motorcycle show held in November 2025, Honda announced its brand promise and the Honda WN7, the first model under its new electric brand.
Mihara says that when he first rode the Honda WN7 prototype, he felt reassured as it truly felt like a Honda motorcycle.
I found myself smiling. The handling and stability during takeoff felt just like an ICE bike, a familiar Honda riding experience, yet it was quiet and vibration-free, offering a fresh sensation.
What surprised me even more was how the riding feel changed with the various riding modes and regenerative braking adjustments. Without any complicated controls, the feeling of becoming one with the bike—of “Be the Wind”—exceeded my expectations and was astonishing. It is frustratingly hard to put this feeling into words, but I am confident anyone who rides the WN7 will understand.
Honda aims to deliver this thrilling electric motorcycle experience to more and more people. Alongside its brand promise, Honda will continue to provide the “Joy of riding” and the “Joy of free mobility.”
In India, the world’s largest motorcycle market, new electric motorcycle-focused manufacturers were already emerging. Practical electric scooters, positioned as cost-effective, affordable transportation, were driving sales growth.
Of course, we could leverage our accumulated technology and expertise to quickly launch a product meeting similar needs. But is that truly a product worthy of being Honda’s first electric motorcycle? We questioned whether it would be a genuine answer to customers who have ridden Honda ICE-powered bikes. We felt it was not.
We must not alter the beliefs we have cherished and the methods we have cultivated simply because it is electric or because we were latecomers. Even with electric technology, we want to sincerely pursue what only Honda can achieve. That was the answer we arrived at.