One of the biggest barriers to EV ownership is still range anxiety, and while it seems like a range extender – a small combustion engine used solely to top up the batteries – is a good interim solution, it’s not a concept that’s been explored much. There’s the Chevrolet Volt, BMW i3, Mazda MX-30, and of course, before any of them, Top Gear’s Geoff. Honda, though, could be working on a new entry to the class with a bit of a unique twist.
A patent filed by the company in June and spotted by The Drive suggests it’s exploring ideas for a motorbike with stowable seats and handlebars that’s designed to stow in the boot of a car. This isn’t a new idea for Honda – famously, it produced the Motocompo in the early 1980s, a little 49cc moped that was designed to stash in the boot of the Honda City (known as the Jazz in Europe) and sold effectively as an optional extra for that car.
Honda Motocompo in the boot of a Honda City
The concept was revived last year as the Motocompacto, a little electric bike that can not only be folded away and stashed in a car boot but carried around like a suitcase. This patent filing suggests that Honda is very much not done with the idea of stowable bikes, though, and that it could be looking at a fascinating dual purpose for them.
The application is for a small petrol-powered folding moped in the image of the original Motocompo, designed as a ‘last-mile’ vehicle for zipping around busy city centres on. However, Honda has come up with an extra function for it: when it’s stowed in an electric car’s boot, it could be plugged into an outlet, allowing its engine to be switched on remotely and used as a dinky range extender.
Patent drawing showing the method of extracting exhaust gases
This does raise a few questions – for instance, how safe is it to have a running petrol vehicle in the interior of another car? Honda explains that exhaust fumes could be vented by way of a fan, presumably connected directly to the moped’s exhaust. There’s also the question of how much meaningful range a likely very tiny, single-cylinder petrol engine will actually provide.
Either way, the idea of something like this tucked in the boot of the charming little Honda e is exciting to us. Only one problem: Honda discontinued the e, so maybe we’ll have to make do with the much less interesting mess of letters and numbers that is the e:Ny1.
Motocompo image: zombieite, CC BY 2.0
