Suzuki Burgman Electric: Top 5 Things We Know So Far

For decades, the ICE age witnessed the big four brands from Japan – Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki – fight it out tooth and nail. But it looks like in the age of EVs, life for the big four will be that of cooperation and the upcoming Suzuki Burgman Electric is a prime example of just that. Although the e-scoot will soon begin pre-production testing in Japan, we already know a few things about it and here are it's top 5 highlights:

Maxi-style e-Scooter: 

For its first electric offering, Suzuki is choosing to use the uber popular Burgman Street 125 as the platform on which the e-scooter will be built on. Needless to say only the maxi-style aesthetics will remain and underneath will be an all new scooter to accommodate the batteries and motor. The maxi-style design should work well not only in European and Asian markets, but also in India.

Same same, but different:

What we know is that the e-Burgman will have a seat height of 780mm, and could weigh around 147kg, which is pretty heavy when compared to its ICE counterpart which tips the scale at 110kg (kerb). Hence, we can expect slight changes to the underpinnings too, for example the Burgman's new EV avatar gets twin rear shocks instead of the monoshock like on the ICE.  

A Suzuki with a little bit of Honda inside: 

Interestingly Suzuki's first e-scoot will be using Honda's Mobile Power Pack e swappable batteries, the same battery pack used in 'Gachaho'- a battery sharing consortium created by Japan's big four.

Motor and batteries: 

According to the available information we have on the e-Burgman’s specifications, it will be powered by an AC synchronous motor producing upto 4kW of peak power and 18Nm torque. The claimed range is 44km while cruising at speeds of 60kmph. That's not a lot when compared to what we get from e-scoots like Ola S1 Pro and Ather 450X but its battery swapping feature should help resolve this limitation. 

When will it come to India?

The e-Burgman was spied testing in India back in 2021, despite that its India launch had been delayed. Given that Honda recently announced its first electric vehicles for India along with its battery swapping network should debut in 2024, we can expect this e-Burgman to arrive after Honda's roll out. Especially because it will have Honda's battery technology in place to use for a convenient user experience.

Verdict: 

Maxi-style scooters are a great option to build EVs on, simply because of how much space there is to stuff more batteries in. The Burgman is a global moniker too, hence acceptability of the new e-Burgman should be easier than launching something all new. Not to mention it’s easier to build an EV on an existing platform rather than building something from the ground up.