Yamaha creates 260bhp electric drivetrain
The electric motor and drive systems created by Yamaha range from 46 to 260bhp and can be used in a host of vehicles
WITH pretty much every global manufacturer touting, developing, or selling at least one electric model, the only real surprise is Yamaha and its lack of an electrically powered motorcycle.
Sure, we’ve had some concepts, working and otherwise, but unless the Yamaha’s electric project is so under wraps that nobody outside of the design studio has seen it, they don’t seem to have anything on the cards.
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But that doesn’t mean Yamaha is blind to an electric future, as its latest range of electric drive systems proves. The project has created a range of electric drive systems that incorporate the motor (Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor – IPMSM), the electronic control systems, reduction gears and can be combined to wither water or oil cooling.
The motors slot into a range that includes units from 35kw (46bhp), to 200kw (268bhp) and is claimed to be able to fit into cars and other vehicles.
The Yamaha EV motor units aren’t Yamaha’s only foray into the electrically powered arena either, the company has a large foothold in the e-cycle market in some regions through Yamaha E-Bikes and also through its electric marine propulsion division.
What could the Yamaha electric motors fit into?
One possible option for using the electric drivetrain could be in Yamaha’s long-running concept, the PES1. It broke cover at the Tokyo Motor show in the mid-2000s and came in two flavours, on-road, as seen, and in dirt-bike form, called the PED1. They were groundbreaking concepts at the time and they still look like viable machines today having both aged well. Whether or not this is an option that Yamaha is looking to go down though is anyone’s guess.
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
