Honda Teases Supercharged V3 Motorcycle Engine

Motorcyclists might find it easy to doom-and-gloom about the current state of performance bikes. It seems the majority of moto R&D is focused on making motorcycles easier or safer to ride, not fun to ride. But Honda’s latest teaser for its new supercharged V3 engine shows that at least Big Red has our backs, and wants us to enjoy thrilling, high-performance riding for years to come.

At the end of the clip below, you can hear the V3 fired up.

Honda first revealed its new V3 engine at the EICMA show in Milan in November of 2024, but unlike so many Skunk Works projects that appear at the Italian show, the V3 motor appears to be a serious endeavour to build a next-generation motor—maybe the last-generation motor for sportbike riders.

The V3 architecture is unique to this Honda powerplant, but it’s not what truly sets the engine apart. The distinctive feature is an electrically-governed supercharger, the first such system to ever appear on a motorcycle engine.

The supercharger is important for two reasons. First, there’s the traditional reason to use a supercharger (or turbocharger, for that matter): Forced induction lets you get more performance out of an engine, keeping a small-sized, lightweight motor but making the power of a larger machine.

But the other reason is actually more important as the 2020s turn into the 2030s. Depending how your forced induction system is tuned, pumping a higher volume of air into the system that in turn allows better combustion of the fuel in the cylinder. That means less unburnt gas in the exhaust, and cleaner emissions. As regulators tighten the rules on internal combustion engine pollution, it’s important that any high-performance bike you build must also have clean emissions, or else you can’t sell it.

Here’s how Honda described the engine, in the Google-Translated YouTube text:

Honda has developed a special engine in an innovative pursuit of the look, feel, and performance of next-generation, high-efficiency, high-power engines. 

The new liquid-cooled V3 engine was developed specifically for extremely slim and compact large-displacement motorcycles. It features the world’s first electric compressor for motorcycles, delivering highly responsive torque even at low RPMs.

What’s more, the electric compressor achieves a compact design, high response, and lightweight design. The future is more exciting than ever!

What they’re saying is, they get it—not every motorcyclist wants a sensible commuter bike, which is where the industry seems to have its emphasis these days. Some of us want a tire-shredding beast, and with the V3 engine, Honda might be offering just that, in a format that will last when current inline fours, triples and V-twins might all be unable to pass emissions checks.