Yamaha Series Parallel Hybrid Electric Motorcycle Revealed
A video posted to the Yamaha Global YouTube channel shows a hybrid motorcycle in the advanced stages of testing
Yamaha could soon be joining Kawasaki in the hybrid motorcycle segment, with a video showing a petrol-electric hybrid bike being tested.
Kawasaki made waves when, in 2023, it announced two mainstream motorcycles that employed hybrid technology. While hybrid cars are a well-known and established feature on our roads, bikes that utilise both battery and internal combustion power have been, until now, a rare thing indeed. They could be getting slightly less rare in the coming years, as a video published recently shows Yamaha is also eyeing up the technology.
The system used on the Yamaha features a traditional combustion engine with a motor generator mounted directly to the crank and an electric motor connected to the rear axle. The engine generates electrical power via the crank-mounted generator, which can in turn send power to the axle-mounted motor to provide forward motion.
The bike has three drive modes, full EV, series hybrid driving/engine driving, and boost driving. In the automatic mode, the bike starts as a full EV, using only the axle-mounted motor to get the bike moving. In series hybrid driving/engine driving mode, the internal combustion engine will also fire up, providing power to the rear wheel via the belt drive and recharging the bike's battery via the crank-mounted motor generator.
The new Hybrid from Yamaha also has a neat trick up its sleeve, with two boost modes which can be called upon when overtaking slower vehicles. In Dual Boost mode, both the axle-mounted electric motor and the combustion engine work together to accelerate the bike. In Triple Boost mode, the axle-mounted electric motor and the combustion engine are joined by the crank-mounted motor generator, which now outputs torque directly to the crank increasing the power, torque and response of the engine.
While the video you can see on this page does indeed show a seemingly fully functioning motorcycle, Yamaha is clear in pointing out that the technology is under research and development. That means that should a hybrid motorcycle ever arrive from the Iwata brand, it’ll probably look significantly different to this one.
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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!
