Honda joins KTM AG, Piaggio & C. Spa, and Yamaha Motor C. Ltd to establish a Consortium of Interchangeable Batteries for Motorcycles and Light Electric Vehicles.

The consortium constitutes the push for a standardized system of interchangeable batteries while promoting light electric vehicles’ for widespread use.

The agreement will also see the effort to increase the range, shorten the charging time, and lower the costs of vehicles and infrastructure.

According to Honda, the consortium’s primary focus is to standardized technical characteristics of the interchangeable battery system for vehicles belonging to category “L”; mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles, quadricycles.

“The global electrification effort to reduce CO 2 emissions on a planetary scale is accelerating, especially in Europe. For the widespread adoption of electric motorcycles, problems such as travel distance and charging times need to be addressed, and interchangeable batteries are a promising solution.

“Considering the customer benefits, the standardization of interchangeable batteries and the wide adoption of battery systems are vital, which is why the four-member manufacturers have agreed to create the Consortium,” said Noriaki Abe, Managing Officer, Motorcycle Operations of Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

The consortium will be operational in May 2021.

Honda Transalp could make a return after Honda reportedly registered the Transalp nameplate in the United States.

Young-Machine reported last year that the Japanese outfit allegedly would revive the Transalp to compete for the middleweight adventure segment with BMW F 850 GS and KTM 790 Adventure.

Their Japanese counterpart, Yamaha, then introduced the Tenere 700, which gained a lot of attention due to its off-road ability.

Hence, it is only logical for Honda to push itself into middleweight adventure with the Transalp.

The new Transalp is rumoured to be powered by the same parallel-twin unit found on the NC750, and it will be available in DCT and manual transmission.

While the CB500X and the NC750X is more road focus, the Transalp is expected to be a serious off-road machine.

After months of waiting, finally, the Milwaukee based company officially launched the 2021 Pan America.

The Pan America is available in two variants; the Standard comes in Vivid Black and River Rock Grey while the Special in Vivid Black, Gauntlet Grey Metallic, Deadwood Green and the two-tone Baja Orange and Stone Washed White Pearl.

The all-new Pan America is powered by a Revolution Max 1250 dual spark VVT that produces 150hp @ 9,000rpm and 127Nm @ 6,750rpm.

According to Harley-Davidson, the unit is built from the ground-up in an effort to improve the weight distribution.

The Pan-America Special is packed with a beefy 47mm inverted fork with trick semi-active suspension, including Adaptive Ride Height adjustment.

The Adaptive Ride Height works by adjusting the seat height accordingly, which we think a very innovative move by Harley-Davidson.

The suspension automatically drops the bike down to 855mm once you come to a stop before returning to 890mm once you are on the move, simple yet practical for many.

The rear shocks are handled by a linkage-mounted monoshock with automatic electronic preload control and semi-active compression and rebound damping.

The braking is done by radially mounted, monoblock, 4-piston calliper at the front and dual rotor, floating, tower-mounted at the rear.

The standard and Special comes with a full colour 6.8″ TFT touchscreen display, full LED Light setup, cornering ABS, lean-sensitive traction control, cruise control and hill control which put the Pan America as the most technologically advanced motorcycle coming out of Milwaukee.

As far as an adventure motorcycle goes, Pan America offers a 21L tank with a weight of 258kg for the Special and 245kg for the standard.

The pricing for the all-new Pan America 1250 Standard and the Special are as follows:

Pan America 1250 Special

• Vivid Black – RM115,900
• Color – RM116,900
• Two-Tone – RM118,900

Pan America 1250 Standard

• Vivid Black – RM99,900
• Color – RM101,900