The Yamaha Passol is an
electric scooter manufactured by
Yamaha Motor Company
is a Japanese multinational manufacturer of motorcycles, marine products such as boats and outboard motors, and other motorized products. The company was established in 1955 upon separation from Yamaha Corporation (however, Yamaha Corporation ...
beginning in 2002, and sold only in Japan. Weight is and claimed range . It was described as the first mass-produced electric motorcycle in Japan (the
Peugeot Scoot'Elec
The Peugeot Scoot'Elec was an electric motor scooter produced by Peugeot in France.
Launched in 1996, the Scoot'elec was based on the Zenith, with which it shares body panels and suspension parts. It is powered by a DC motor fed from three Saf ...
was produced earlier). It has a
lithium-ion battery
A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...
. A Passol-L model with the same motor and bigger battery was released in 2005, and a related electric, the EC-02, featuring a built-in
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
dock, also was released in 2005.
A recall for battery problems in the Passol and EC-02 was issued in late 2006, followed by the halting of production of all Yamaha electric motorcycles in 2007 due to the recall coupled with weak sales.
Records and awards
In 2003, the Passol won the Good Design Gold Award (MITI Prize) from Japan's
Ministry of International Trade and Industry
The was a ministry of the Government of Japan from 1949 to 2001. The MITI was one of the most powerful government agencies in Japan and, at the height of its influence, effectively ran much of Japanese industrial policy, funding research and di ...
.
In 2004, Japanese
long-distance motorcyclist Kanichi Fujiwara set off to circumnavigate the world on a Passol. It may have been the first global circumnavigation by electric two-wheeler.
In 2004, Yamaha won the
Hong Kong Design Centre's Design for Asia Award for Product Design for the Passol.
In exhibitions
A Passol was exhibited in an international show on Japanese design at
Metropolitan State College of Denver
Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver or Metro State) is a public university in Denver, Colorado. MSU Denver is located on the Auraria Campus, along with the University of Colorado Denver and the Community College of Denver, in do ...
's Center for Visual Art in 2005.
Specifications
Specifications in infobox from .
Notes and references
Notes
References
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*{{citation, url=http://www.berndtesch.de/English/Continents/WorldAround/WorldAroundMotorcycle2001-2004.html, last=Tesch, first=Bernd , author-link=Bernd Tesch, date=September 11, 2013, access-date=2013-11-14, title=Around-The-World by motorcycle, 2001–2004
External links
Passol-Lelectronic brochure from Yamaha Museum's 2003 Tokyo Motor Show display
Passol
Electric scooters
Motorcycles introduced in 2002