Yamaha E01 E-Scooter Released In Japan

The e-scooter won’t be available to the general public and has been announced for a lease program 

Yamaha has introduced the E01 electric scooter in Japan as a demonstration product on a limited lease program. The details for the Japanese market have revealed the monthly cost for the E01 on this lease program to be 20,000 yen, including tax (around Rs 12,608), for the duration of three months.

The program will also be introduced in Europe, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia and will be commencing from July 2022. The Japanese bike maker is calling it a real-world proof-of-concept (PoC) testing.

The E01 was first introduced as a concept a couple of years back and is claimed to be an equivalent of an IC engine scooter of 125cc displacement. It is powered by an AC synchronous motor, producing 8.1kW and 30Nm. 

Electrifying the e-scooter is a 4.9kWh non-removable battery pack claimed to offer a range of 104km. The EV comes with three charging methods: a quick charger (0-90 percent in an hour), normal charger (full charge in five hours) and portable charger (14 hours to full charge).

As most modern day two wheelers, the E01, too, comes packed with essentials like digital instrument cluster, all LED-lighting, three ride modes, traction control, regenerative braking, reverse mode, smart key, 23-litre underseat storage and a charging port.

Yamaha plans to collect data from this limited lease program and use it to release the final production-spec model of the e-scooter. The model, for its demonstration program, is aiming at vehicle sharing operators, local governments, government agencies and the likes to gain the feedback for further development.

With these developments in place, Yamaha is still a few years behind launching the electric scooter. On the other hand, Suzuki is all set to launch the Burgman Electric soon. In fact, the test mule has already been spotted several times in a production-ready avatar. Moreover, even Honda is working on launching an electric two-wheeler specifically for the Indian market, and is expected to be the Activa E.

What do you think about Yamaha’s lease program for the E01 e-scooter? Let us know in the comments.