Yamaha is taking its electric two-wheeler game up a notch, with a plan to introduce a new battery-swapping company in Europe in the coming months. It will be called Enyring, and it will offer subscription-based services for “compact urban electric vehicles.”
That means, quick-swap battery stations for ebikes—at least at first. Although Yamaha is a member of the multi-manufacturer Swappable Battery Consortium, this is not aimed at full-sized motorcycles. As per the PR:
With the target of compact urban electric vehicles in the low-speed range (mainly eBikes), ENYRING’s services will rent out batteries available on a subscription basis. These batteries can be easily swapped out at any of the swappable battery stations installed throughout a city at any time, eliminating the hassle of recharging as well as the cost of purchasing a new battery once one reaches the end of its lifecycle. Furthermore, used batteries that are no longer suitable for mobility use are reused as storage batteries, disassembled into cells, recycled, and reused as new batteries.
Yamaha says this business model will help create “a sustainable, recycling-oriented society” that offers affordable and easy mobility while also reducing environmental impact. YMMV, of course.
Enyring will be based in Berlin, and while the company is already officially established, Yamaha does not expect Enyring to begin operations until early 2025 (which is only a year away now, if you’ve been paying attention to the calendar).
Yamaha says this is all part of the company’s plan to reduce waste, use natural resources sustainably and to improve energy efficiency—”all key issues identified in the Yamaha Motor Group Environmental Plan 2050,” as the PR says. However, it is worth noting that unlike Honda’s big-headline EV announcements, or Kawasaki’s introduction of hybrid motorcycles, Yamaha has not yet brought out any EV bikes that look like they can compete with gasoline-powered machines for riding range. They do have the NEOS scooter in their Euro lineup, but that (like the ebikes serviced by Enyring) is for urban use only.
