When I think of Yamaha one of two things come to mind: motorcycles or pianos. Diverging from that two-pronged product portfolio, Yamaha has come to the Tokyo Motor Show with both a sports car and a pair of electric motorbikes.
The car is called the Sports Ride Concept and is essentially a micro supercar with a McLaren-like body but an interior ripped from the design pages of Pagani. Weighing only 1,635 pounds (750 kg) and just under 13 feet long (3,900 mm), it's just slightly longer than a Lotus Elise but weighs around 400 pounds fewer than the lightweight British sports car -- and features a plusher interior.
Though Yamaha doesn't divulge what powers the Sports Ride Concept, we can only presume it's one of the brand's motorcycle motors. If the designers were feeling exceedingly mental, though, they might have bolted one of its V8s, like the one in the Noble M600, to the chassis. That, however, is highly unlikely.
The few details Yamaha did publicize about the sports car concept focus on its chassis. Constructed in the iStream technique, which is a process developed by Gordon Murray Design Limited to produce lightweight, high-rigidity vehicle structures rooted in Formula One technology, the Sports Ride Concept body is likely bone-rattlingly stiff, but surely handles like a four-wheel motorcycle.
Speaking of motorcycles, Yamaha unveiled two electric two-wheelers along with the Sports Ride Concept. Dubbed PED2 and PES2 respectively, the bikes are both powered solely by electrons. While the PES2 (Passion Electric Street sport 2) is more of an electric street-bike, the PED2 (Passion Electric Dirt sport 2) is an EV dirt-bike -- hence the acronymic names.
Intriguingly, more than just electric-powered, the PED2 is also two-wheel drive -- a feature that few motorcycles gas- or electric-powered have before boasted. In terms of performance, Yamaha says that "both models are equivalent in performance to Class II (50–125cc) mopeds and motorcycles." Suffice it to say they're only moderately quick, despite electric motors offering full torque at zero rpm.
It's unclear whether Yamaha would actually send a sports car into production, as such things typically don't sell too well, especially from a brand without much car cache. However, I'd bet Yamaha will send some EV motorbikes into showrooms like the PED2 and PES2 in the near future.