Honda’s Wild EV Outlier Electric Motorcycle Has Motors in Both Wheels

Honda has shown how strange it believes the electric motorcycle future could get. The Honda EV Outlier Concept, displayed at EICMA in Milan, uses a motor inside each wheel, a battery in a large black central body, and a rider seated extremely low behind it. On the show floor, it looked like almost nothing else, and that is exactly the point.

Who Is Honda, and Who Owns the EV Outlier Concept?

The concept comes from Honda Motor Co., Ltd., the parent company of the Honda group, which operates together with its subsidiaries and affiliates. Its businesses span automobiles, motorcycles, power products and marine. Honda began its full-scale entry into the electric motorcycle market in 2024, and the EV Outlier is its boldest design statement in that segment so far.

What Does “Outlier” Mean for an Electric Motorcycle?

Honda defines “Outlier” as an entity unconstrained by boundaries. Project leader Yuya Tsutsumi said the aim was to show that electrification is not simply replacing a combustion engine with electric power, but an opportunity to evolve into an entirely new category.

How Do In-Wheel Motors Change Motorcycle Design?

Instead of a centrally mounted motor driving the rear wheel, the EV Outlier places motors inside both wheels. Honda says this layout flexibility let designers rethink the whole machine. Wide tires add a dynamic look, while the battery sits in the main black body, deliberately separated from other electrical components to create contrast and define the styling.

Gliding, Ecstasy and Low: Honda’s Three Riding Ideas

Gliding describes the smooth, nearly silent feel of electric propulsion. Honda says acceleration, deceleration and cornering transitions are exceptionally smooth, summed up as “dynamics within silence.”

Ecstasy covers instant response and massive torque. By controlling the front and rear in-wheel motors independently to suit conditions, Honda aims to send drive force more directly to the road so rider and machine feel as one.

Low is the most literal. Designers lowered the seat’s hip point and minimized the eye point to create a seat height that stands out even among Honda motorcycles. Honda calls this the “Dynamic & Low Position” and says it is possible only because the bike is electric.

Why Does the Bucket-Style Backrest Matter?

A bucket-type backrest supports the rider under hard acceleration. Honda says it also lets the rider pivot through corners with the hips as the axis, creating a handling sensation unlike existing motorcycles.

What Technology Is Inside the Digital Cockpit?

Traditional mirrors are replaced by camera-based units integrated with a slim, wide instrument cluster. The upper display shows information essential for normal riding, such as lean angle. The lower screen shows mode settings, front motor torque adjustment, and real-time front and rear wheel behavior based on road conditions.

When the rider switches modes, the sub-display shows changes in drive status and output characteristics of both motors. Honda also envisions linking the system to personal data to tailor riding control to skill level and suggest destinations based on schedule and preferences.

How Did Honda’s Designers Build Something With No Benchmark?

Tsutsumi said designers from motorcycles, the Power Products division and overseas teams joined the project, using Honda’s waigaya culture of open, rank-free discussion. Proportions were the biggest challenge, because combustion motorcycles have long-established rules of beauty, which the Outlier deliberately breaks. The team repeatedly verified wheelbase and height balance to find new proportions suited to an EV.

Honda also drew on automobile electric powertrain expertise and talks with engineers working on Honda Riding Assist, its motorcycle stability control technology aimed at reducing the risk of falls.

Will Honda Actually Build the EV Outlier Concept?

Almost certainly not exactly as shown, which is what concepts are for. Still, the bike is a statement of intent: Honda is exploring what motorcycles could become once designers no longer work around engines, fuel tanks, transmissions and traditional drivetrains. No launch date, price, battery capacity, voltage or range has been announced.

Honda has not released battery capacity, voltage or range. The battery is housed in the large central black body.

Bottom Line

The Honda EV Outlier Concept is less a product preview than a design manifesto: in-wheel motors, a rider sitting almost on the ground, and a cockpit that shows what each wheel is doing. Production details remain unannounced, but the message is clear. Honda sees electric motorcycles as a new category, not an engine swap.

EV Outlier Concept: Frequently Asked Questions

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