Honda's 100% electric off-road bike has roamed one of the best venues in the world
11/10/2026 10:00
Updated to
11/10/2026 10:00
Honda used the Ernée Nations Motocross event to showcase the progress of its Honda CR Electric, an electric motorcycle designed specifically for off-road competition. The Japanese brand conducted several demonstrations for the audience featuring Trey Canard and Justin Brayton, two riders with extensive experience in motocross and Supercross. This prototype isn’t entirely new—it made its competitive debut in Japan in 2023 and later competed officially in the FIM E-Xplorer World Cup, where Honda won the men’s title in its first full season.
The presence in Ernée is particularly interesting because Honda didn’t just display a concept bike. The Honda CR Electric has been used for years as a racing laboratory to develop batteries, engines, and electronic controls under especially demanding conditions.
Motocross is likely one of the toughest environments for this purpose.
Honda started competing with it in 2023
The history of the Honda CR Electric dates back to the 2023 Japanese Motocross Championship. Trey Canard was responsible for its competitive debut, and the bike showed considerable performance from the start. Over that weekend, it managed to record times close to those of conventional bikes and secured two holeshots in three races, taking advantage of one of the key advantages of electric propulsion: immediate torque delivery.
Honda then used what it learned to further develop the project. In 2024, it took another step by adding the Honda CR Electric to the FIM E-Xplorer World Cup, an international competition specifically designed for electric off-road bikes.
The result was significant: Spanish rider Tosha Schareina won the men’s championship, while Honda HRC finished second in both the women’s category and the team standings.
Two experienced riders to showcase it in Ernée
For the Motocross des Nations demonstrations, Honda once again relied on Trey Canard, accompanied this time by Justin Brayton, a rider with a long history in AMA Supercross.
Both took to the track over the weekend alongside another Japanese electric project: the Yamaha YE-01 Racing Concept, piloted by Ben Townley and Milko Potisek.
The simultaneous presence of Honda and Yamaha is notable because it shows that two of the largest Japanese manufacturers are using competition to explore how electric propulsion can fit into motocross.
In Yamaha’s case, the YE-01 is still in a more conceptual stage and has been developed alongside Electric Motion using chassis technology derived from the YZ450F.
Honda has not yet revealed how far it can go or what battery it uses
But the project is already having impacts beyond this motorcycle. Honda itself has used knowledge gained from the CR Electric’s battery to develop the Honda RTL ELECTRIC for trial racing.
The brand aims to achieve carbon neutrality across all its two-wheeled products by the 2040s and considers electrification to be one of the pillars of that strategy.
For now, the Honda CR Electric isn’t necessarily a motocross electric bike set to arrive at dealerships tomorrow. But it does demonstrate something more significant: Honda has been using real races, professional riders, and extreme conditions for several years to figure out what an electric bike needs before it can truly compete with a gasoline-powered one.