Honda Patents Motocompo ‘Range Extender’ Scooter

Honda has filed a fairly unusual patent this summer, which takes its inspiration from the retro Motocompo city scooter, and pairs it with an electric car.

The Motocompo, for those too young to remember, was a funky folding scooter built by Honda between 1981 and 1983. It was, effectively, sold as an accessory, and designed in such a way that you could fold down the handlebars and seat, and stow it in the boot of the dinky ‘Kei Cars’ like the Honda City and Civic.

Needless to say, it didn’t set the world on fire, but like many bikes that crashed and burned when they were released, original Motocompos are now sought after and change hands for upwards of £2,500.

Honda doesn’t seem to think the idea behind the bike was that flawed, though, as a newly discovered patent, dating June 2024, shows the Japanese giant could be taking a fresh look at the concept.

Like the original bike, the patent in question shows a petrol-powered micro-scooter, with a seat and handlebars that can fold down, allowing it to be stowed in the boot of a small car. Making the patents even more intriguing is that the images shown on the patent show 1980s-era Motocompo, and even portray it sitting in the boot of a car that looks like a MkII Honda Civic.

Where this bike differs from the original one, though, is that aside from acting as a cheap and lightweight urban scooter once the car has been parked up, this bike can actually become a range-extending power station that can be used to charge up an electric car.

In a nutshell, the scooter when placed in the boot of the car can be hooked up to a charging socket in the compartment, and the scooter’s engine can then be coupled to a generator which in turn tops up the battery - we assume this can either be activated on the fly or while the car is stationary. Because having a running petrol-powered scooter located in the boot of your car is generally seen as a bad idea, the patent explains that a series of fans and vents, expel the exhaust gasses out into the atmosphere - oh the irony of it all!

Range-extending petrol engines are nothing new in the automotive world although they don’t appear very often. BMW had the i3 REX which uses a petrol engine to charge the battery, while the Mazda MX-30 RE-V uses a small Wankel rotary engine - obviously! 

Building a motorcycle that can be a range-extending power station for an electric car, that you can then ride to your final destination, is something that we’re almost certain has never been done before. We just wonder that while sales of electric vehicles stalling, and many calling for an ICE alternative (like hydrogen engines or bio-fuels), if we’ll ever see the concept making it to market.