In the past few years, there’s been plenty of talk of legislated ending of gasoline-powered vehicle sales. Yamaha seems to be paying attention to the talk, as the company has now announced a move towards “carbon neutrality over the entire product life cycle by 2050.“
Translation: Yamaha plans to build vehicles that result in low carbon emissions caused by manufacturing, and also wants to build vehicles with low carbon emissions required for their continuous operation. As per the Yamaha Motors Europe press release:
“Yamaha Motor has continuously offered personal mobility options with small environmental footprints and low CO2emissions over the entire product life cycle, from raw material procurement and manufacturing to use and disposal. Toward realizing a carbon-neutral society in 2050, the Company will continue to offer new value by proposing new forms of mobility unique to Yamaha Motor in addition to its signature motorcycles.”
Elsewhere, the press release says the company’s basic policy is to “further reduce the C02 emitted per person during movement,” and also to “Promote use of personal mobility with low C02 emissions.”
“New forms of mobility,” eh? Interesting. Yamaha’s shown us vehicles like the three-wheeled Niken in recent years, and it seems manufacturers see the EV revolution as a chance to not just build vehicles that aren’t dependent on the petro-barons—they also see this as a chance to re-think the whole design philosophy behind personal transportation.
This latest announcement is an update of the company’s Environmental Plan 2050. The press release itself doesn’t explain exactly how all this environmental friendliness will come to pass, just that Yamaha will “Employ internationally recognized carbon offset methods.”
Presumably, we shall see further announcements in coming months and years as Yamaha moves towards this goal. Yamaha is already working with other manufacturers on swappable electric motorcycle/scooter batteries, and has released an all-electric trials bike. No doubt there’ll be similar machines coming soon, perhaps with a reveal as early as this fall’s EICMA show.
