Speaker 1: This is the Honda Moto Compact O, and it is the most fun goofiest vehicle I've driven all year. It's so little.
Speaker 2: What we've got here is a foldable
Speaker 1: Scoter that breaks down into something, thankfully, the size of a briefcase. You're looking at it around 20 inches tall by 30 inches wide and less than four inches deep. But first, a quick
Speaker 2: History
Speaker 1: Lesson back between 1981 and 1983, Honda sold the Moto combo. It was a compact, [00:00:30] foldable gasoline motorcycle that fit inside the trunk of the Honda Jazz. It was only sold for those years and only in the Japanese market, and it's achieved a bit of a cult status. So the Moo then is an electric rebirth of the moto compo, and it's in many ways, even more simple upfront.
Speaker 2: We've got a 490
Speaker 1: Watt electric motor that's half of a kilowatt. It breaks down to around half a horsepower, but it's pretty torkey and it's controlled with this throttle right here on the right, handlebar. On the left, we've got a brake [00:01:00] and a nice little
Speaker 2: Bell so that you can let
Speaker 1: People know that you're coming. And in the middle we've got
Speaker 2: An LCD
Speaker 1: That shows things like your battery life and your current speed. Top speed is around 15 miles per hour, and maximum range is around 12 miles with a full charge. Now you just plug this guy into a regular 110 volt outlet at your house, and you go to a full charge in around three and a half hours. That's a pretty good amount of range for maybe getting to and from a train station on your commute, or maybe getting from a casual carpool or ride sharing spot to your final destination. [00:01:30] Now, Honda designed this thing to be small and compact and compliment its upcoming series of electric vehicles, starting with the Acura ZDX and the Honda prologue, but it also works well with the gasoline vehicle pretty much anywhere. You can toss this thing into a trunk or bring it onto a train, it's kind of ideal for now. Typically, electric vehicles are heavier than the gasoline cars they replace, but this only weighs 40 pounds, which is
Speaker 2: About half
Speaker 1: The weight of the original Honda Motor compo. You can actually carry this around pretty easily. [00:02:00] Not bad. Now, one of the things you have to get used to with riding this thing is that it's front wheel drive rear brake, which means that you can't really power through turns and it gets a little bit of wib wobbly. But if you've ever spent any time on a lime scooter or something like that, it's a very similar experience with the steering. Just a little more comfortable. You're sitting down. Now, one of the things that I like most about this, aside from the fact that, well, frankly, it's just adorable, is that it's not a chore to ride. It's actually a whole lot of fun. 15 miles per hour doesn't seem like a whole lot, but when you get zipping, it's a [00:02:30] good pace. It's like a running pace.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be more than enough for getting you around from point A to point B. And if I have one minor nitpick, it's that there's nowhere to put a bag or a basket or something like that. This is something that you're going to want to put a backpack on with if you want to make a grocery run, for example. Let's see how quickly I can get this broken down into its portable mode. You'll start by removing the seat post here, which is the only part that you have to remove in order to get it broken down. It's a little parts formulary ish, but the rest of it's pretty straightforward. Next thing you're going to want to do is unlock [00:03:00] your handlebars. Give them a little rotate, 90 degrees. You'll unlock the bottom of the stem, and then unlock the top of the stem and the whole handlebar situation just sort of drops down into
Speaker 3: It.
Speaker 1: Fold down, lock into place. Unlock your rear wheels, fold those in,
Speaker 3: Lock
Speaker 1: Them back into place. Kickstand,
Speaker 3: [00:03:30] Kickstand, and you're ready to go. That's pretty quick, right?
Speaker 1: The Honda Motor Compactor goes on sale later this year for 995 bucks, and you don't even have to buy an EV to get one, though Honda probably prefers that you do. You can find out more about electric vehicles like this than big electric vehicles over on cnet.com. I'm going to go sneak some more miles in for they take a thing away from me. It's just too much fun.
