Fastport eQuad, Flagship Product from New Honda Business Venture, Wins "Red Dot: Best of the Best 2025" Design Concept Award

TOKYO, Aug. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Honda today announced that the Fastport eQuad, an all-electric micromobility vehicle for last-mile delivery, has won the Red Dot: Best of the Best 2025 award in the Design Concept competition of the Red Dot Design Award^*1. Moreover, two electric motorcycle concept models, the EV Fun Concept and the EV Urban Concept, were each named a Red Dot winner in the same competition, and the concept movie for the Honda V3 motorcycle engine, titled "New V3 Engine Concept Teaser," was named the Red Dot winner in the Brand & Communication Design competition.

＜About the Honda award-winning models and concept movie＞

•Fastport eQuad
The Fastport eQuad is a single-rider micromobility delivery vehicle that supplements the rider's pedaling power with electric motor assistance. The Fastport eQuad realizes a powerful, smooth, quiet and zero-emission ride by combining a pedal-by-wire system, which electronically transmits the rider's pedaling input to the driving force, with a pedal-assist powertrain, which boosts the rider's pedaling with electric power. Honda designed the Fastport eQuad as a micromobility vehicle for use in bicycle lanes*², enabling companies to improve the speed and efficiency of logistics in urban areas with complex traffic environments and heavy traffic congestion. Full-scale mass production of the Fastport eQuad is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2026 at a U.S. Honda facility using domestic and globally made parts.

＜Key design features＞
The Fastport eQuad not only features a sleek design, but it is also thoughtfully engineered to ensure harmony with the environments where it will be used. While using a bicycle as a motif, the design effectively incorporates transparent materials to enable the rider to intuitively recognize pedestrians and other road conditions in the surrounding area. The clear windshield ensures excellent visibility for the rider while also providing a view of the rider from the outside. A translucent cargo container was adopted to reduce the visual volume of the Fastport eQuad.

•EV Fun Concept
The EV Fun Concept is Honda's first electric sports model and is being developed as a next-generation electric motorcycle that offers a new sensation of quiet riding and an emotional feeling unique to electric motorcycles. In addition to the high level of "riding, turning, and stopping" created by long-developed Honda motorcycle technologies, the new quiet, vibration-free ride that is only possible with electric power and the slim, easy-to-manage chassis package realized by its fixed battery will provide a new emotional experience that is very different to internal combustion engine (ICE) motorcycles. The production model based on this concept model will be a naked sports model equivalent to a mid-sized (ICE) motorcycle and is scheduled to go on sale before the end of the current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2026) as the first Honda electric sports model equipped with a fixed battery.

＜Key design features＞
The EV Fun Concept features a slim and seamless design that expresses its quiet yet overwhelming acceleration and sporty riding performance. By reducing the volume of the area where a gas tank would have been for an ICE model, a dynamic and horizontally-oriented silhouette was realized. The EV Fun Concept was designed as a bike that is not bound by existing motorcycle categories. The functional beauty was highlighted through the combination of a sleek body and mechanical functional parts.

•EV Urban Concept
The EV Urban Concept reimages Honda's vision for urban electric mobility. Featuring an intuitive human-machine interface (HMI) and the fusion of software and hardware, the EV Urban Concept offers a new experience for riders. Honda aims to offer the freedom of mobility to as many customers as possible and expand possibilities in each customer's life through enhanced mobility.

＜Key design features＞
Based on the design direction for Honda electric motorcycles — "Precision of Intrinsic Design" — the design team strived to create an essential and exquisite styling design realized by refining the functionality. Featuring minimalist and sophisticated styling that blends in with the urban landscape, the EV Urban Concept offers a new UX through the fusion of software and hardware, embodying the Honda vision of near-future mobility that cooperates and resonates with people and society.

•Honda V3 motorcycle engine with an electrical compressor
In order to create attractive motorcycle products that go beyond customer expectations, Honda is developing the world's first^*3 V3 motorcycle engine with an electrical compressor.  By controlling compression of the intake air irrespective of engine rpm, high-response torque can be delivered even from lower rpm. In addition, adopting an engineering design that eliminates the need for an intercooler to cool the compressed air enables a high degree of freedom for component layout within the limited space available on a motorcycle. This flexibility can be leveraged to achieve a concentration of the mass and reduction of the vehicle weight.

＜Key features of the concept movie, "New V3 Engine Concept Teaser"＞
The concept movie showcases the journey of technological innovation Honda has pursued through continuous challenges in the field of motorcycle technologies, as well as the development process for the world's first V3 motorcycle engine with an electrical compressor. With a rhythmically structured narrative, the movie deliberately incorporates glitch effects that momentarily disrupt the visuals to spark curiosity and build anticipation. In the final scene, the actual sound of the electric compressor is used to convey a sense of excitement and momentum of the development toward the practical application to products and evoke high expectations for the future riding experiences this engine will offer. To powerfully express the "genuine commitment of Honda to carve out the future," all individuals featured are real Honda engineers. Through authentic footage capturing countless discussions and repeated prototyping at the development site, the movie production team aimed to convey the passion and ambition Honda put into the development.

Concept movie, "New V3 Engine Concept Teaser"
https://youtu.be/lZRu5nCBXOQ

＜Comments by Toshinobu Minami, Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, Design Center, Honda R&D Co., Ltd.＞
"We are deeply honored to receive the award not only in the Design Concept competition, following last year's recognition for the Honda 0 Series, but also in the Brand & Communication competition of the globally recognized Red Dot Design Award. We believe this recognition reflects the high regard for the ongoing initiatives of Honda Design that continues to create new value while striving to gain deep insights into changes happening in our business environment, the times and diverse lifestyles of people. Honda will pursue designs as well as a wide range of new value creation to continue to offer mobility products that bring surprise and inspiration to people's daily lives."

Honda Design award history
https://global.honda/jp/design/work/#award (Japanese)
https://global.honda/en/design/work/#award (English)

*1 The Red Dot Award was founded in 1955 and has become one of the most respected design awards worldwide. The award is administered by Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany. For the Product Design competition, 51 categories of industrial products are judged on 9 criteria including the degree of innovation, functionality, durability and ergonomics.
*2 The definition and standards for "bicycle lanes" vary by country. The Fastport eQuad is designed for bicycle lanes as defined by U.S. and European traffic systems, which may differ from the definition in the Japanese traffic system.
*3 Honda internal research

SOURCE Honda