The Honda eCub is the electric bike we all wish Honda would build – they likely never will but that no longer matters as the team at Shanghai Customs have developed an all-inclusive kit that allows any Honda Cub owner to convert their gasoline-powered Cub into a 100% electric bike.
The Honda Cub Electric Conversion Kit
The Honda Cub is by far the most produced motor vehicle in history, with over 100 million manufactured. The reason for this popularity is a combination of an accessible price point, solid reliability, and bullet-proof build quality.
The great benefit of this global popularity is that you can buy a Honda Cub for reasonable money almost anywhere in the world – making it perfect as the basis of an electrical conversion. Often these bikes are just in need of some work and since the Shanghai Customs kit provides all but the frame and forks, there are bargains to be found everywhere.
For the team at SH what appealed most about this project was the ability to reuse and repurpose (or upcycle) old Cubs rather than just crank out another Chinese electric scooter. On top of this, by creating a fully plug and play kit, they could make electric conversions accessible to people in a way they never have been before. As a result, they’ve built up a community of people from every corner of the world interested in converting their Cubs to electric.
The Shanghai Customs eCUB Kit is an all-inclusive package that allows Honda Cub owners with basic mechanical skills and hand tools to convert from petrol to electric power in less than a day.
The benefits of electric power are twofold – maintenance requirements are almost non-existent and it only costs a few cents to fully charge your battery, there’s also no clutch or gears to worry about making the eCub absolutely ideal for novices and experienced riders alike.
At its core the Shanghai Customs kit uses a high-end battery pack containing Panasonic GA 18650 3.7v 3500 mAh lithium-ion cells, and a 1000W electric motor mounted in the rear hub – capable of 2000W at peak which translates into a useable everyday speed of 45km/hr and a range of about 45km (28 mph and 28 miles). The average daily commute is almost exactly this same distance, though it’s split 50/50 as a round trip to and from work.
The eCub kit has a removable battery with a 4 hour recharge time, which makes it a great option for an everyday urban commuter. The full list of parts included in the kit is extensive, and we’ve listed it all below. The team at Shanghai Customs are happy to accommodate any special requests if you have a particular build in mind.
The Honda eCub Kit – Included Parts and Pricing
The team at Shanghai Customs spent over two years developing the eCUB kit to be the best quality plug-and-play electric conversion kit in the world. The painstaking process involved 3D scanning, CAD design, rapid prototyping CNC as well as their own molding and tooling. They focused on quality and longevity rather than penny pinching and the resulting kit has a professional fit and finish unlike almost anything else in the electric motorcycle/scooter world.
The goal from the outset was to keep costs as affordable as possible for people who want an electric motorcycle but can’t afford the $8,000 to $16,000+ USD MSRP attached to most of them. Many mass-production electric scooters are retailing for more than the cost of this kit, making the conversion both an affordable and practical option for those of us who like to wrench on our own bikes.
Due to the ubiquitous (and affordable) nature of the Honda Cub it was chosen as the chassis, and the eCub kit was developed to bolt on to the Cub, requiring less skill and patience than you need to assemble the average Ikea wardrobe.
The full parts list of the Honda eCub consists of the following:
Electrical Parts
– A Panasonic GA 18650 3.7v 3500 mAh lithium-ion battery pack
– A 1000W electric hub motor, capable of 2000W at peak
– A 20 amp DCDC converter
– Switch gear and indicators
– A front headlight and mounting hardware
– An electronic three-wire throttle paired with a matching left grip
– An LED flasher
– A controller (50 amp continuous, 120 amp peak)
– An alarm and keyless entry (pre-wired)
– Connector boxes (pre-installed)
– Remote keys (pre-installed)
– A 4 amp charger
– A digital display and mounting hardware
– A rear brake light and indicator strip
– The full wiring loom
– Front indicators
Structural Parts
– Front and rear wheels (the rear contains the electric motor)
– The battery box frame mount/lock adapter
– A rear disc brake, adapter, cord and front lever
– A front brake lever
– The top unit
– The swing arm and adapters
– Rear shock absorbers
– Handlebars
– The top handlebar yoke
– Tire inners front and rear, and spoke rubber cover
– The controller bracket
– The bottom cover
– Foot rests
– A custom seat
– Screws, packers, and washers (all that are required for full build)
– Rubbers and 3M tape
– Top screw adapters
– Side covers (small)
– Swing arm axel flats and the rear brake caliper
The final MSRP for the kit is $2799 USD which includes shipping to your door, shipping lithium-ion battery packs around the globe can be an expensive undertaking due to the obvious safety concerns so having it included in the base price is a breath of fresh air.
The Honda eCub kit will fit all Honda C70 and C90 models from 1967 to 2003, and it’ll also fit the Honda C50 with some minor tweaks.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
