Hello, Motocompacto! New Honda Mini-E-Cycle Remasters '80s Icon
Honda had a last-mile solution before anyone was using the phrase. It’s back, but reimagined for the digital era.
Meet the Motocompacto. It's a wee little scooter that looks a bit like a flatbed scanner with handlebars, with the sort of friendly future robot appeal of Pixar's Wall-E. It's sleeker than the ubiquitous electric Razor-type scooters running around, and it's a lot smaller (and lighter) than many e-bikes. And, probably more importantly for anyone who's a fan of the unusual antics of Soichiro Honda's company in the 1980s, it's directly inspired by one of the Honda's most delightfully nerdy two-wheelers ever: the Motocompo.
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Update:We've ridden the Motocompacto!Read our review here, and seestep-by-step instructions for unfolding it here.
The Motocompo was a folding tiny motorcycle, and unusually for Honda it was a two-stroke. It folded into a carry-on suitcase sized lump that conveniently stowed in the trunk of the Honda City hatchback. The City was a pugnacious little bulldog of a car, and it even got a much-admired Turbo version (and a very catchy, very 1980s ad starring the British ska band Madness!). But the funny thing about the City is that it was designed from the get-go to handle the Motocompo, rather than the Motocompo being designed to fit in its cargo area. The idea was to get close to a congested city, park somewhere convenient, and Motocompo your way into downtown.
The Motocompo, however, weighed 90 pounds, so hauling it in and out of the City was probably a chore. Here's where the Motocompacto improves on the original: instead of a smoky two-stroke, it features a 0.5-kW, 11.8 lb-ft motor and 6.8-Ah battery. All up, the Motocompacto weighs just 41.3 pounds—less than half of its predecessor's mass—thanks in part to a lightweight aluminum frame. It's compact, too, at just 29.2 inches long, 21.1 inches tall, and a measly 3.7 inches wide when folded up—with a handy carrying handle protruding out the top, to make lugging it easier, too.
Honda says the Motocompacto will do 15 mph and has a maximum range of up to 12 miles. Charging is via a 110-volt outlet and takes 3.5 hours for a full charge, whether folded or not. A Bluetooth connection and app allow riders to customize a few attributes, like lighting and ride modes. It even has a built-in frame loop that lets it be secured to a rack with most common bike locks.
No good merchandising opportunity goes to waste these days, so Honda will offer official Motocompacto accessories like a helmet, backpack, apparel, and so forth.
