If you're the type of person who gets excited thinking about moto development, then Honda's V3 project that it introduced at EICMA may well have been haunting your dreams. I mean, totally fair; I'm right there with you.
That's why, when Honda Motor Company Motorcycle and Power Products Division Chief Officer Minoru Kato mentioned that not only is there a rideable prototype already, but that he's already ridden it, I was all ears. In case you missed it, that news broke at the end of January in a Q&A held during a Honda Motorcycle and Power Products Division presentation about its plans for the coming year.
We're now a good part of the way through February, which means there've been entire weeks between then and now. So what has Honda been doing with its time?
Teasing the V3 concept's sound in an extremely short video, for one thing.
To be totally clear, this is absolutely the teasiest of teasers. You'll need headphones and probably more than one watch/listen to catch the tease of the V3 sound, in fact. This video is neither an explainer nor a deep dive, and we don't really get a good look at the V3 in this video, either.
But if engine sounds do something to your ears and/or your psyche overall, then you might appreciate the little morsel that Honda Greece has just thrown us.
Hopping a few countries over, you'll find yet another development in the Honda V3 story. This time, it's in the form of a sneaky little trademark filed in the UK. There's no artwork to accompany it, but I think you'll agree that the simple name "V3R" is both evocative and in keeping with Honda's general naming conventions for its motorcycles.
Now, Honda manufactures a whole lot of products in a whole lot of categories. From generators to lawnmowers to ATVs and UTVs; it's a busy company. How can we be certain that V3R has anything to do with motorcycles, you might ask yourself?
That's an easy one. The trademark is filed here for Class 12 goods, which include "vehicles; automobiles; four-wheeled vehicles; tricycles; three-wheeled vehicles; motorcycles; two-wheeled vehicles; parts and fittings for the above-mentioned goods," according to the UK Intellectual Property Office.
So actually, I take it back. The V3R could totally be a V3-powered quad, a UTV, or even a car. Perhaps the V3R refers less to a vehicle and more specifically to the V3 engine it's developing, which could potentially be used in more than one product category? If you've guessed I'm making the thinking emoji face right now, you're correct. In fact, I can safely say that if I had a beard, I'd probably be stroking it thoughtfully.
To add further intrigue to this wordmark finding with the UK IPO, a little more digging yields the fact that just two-word marks have been filed in recent years by Honda Motor Company Limited. They are V3R, filed on February 18, 2025, and e:Ny6, which was filed on March 17, 2022.
The Honda e is an electric car with multiple variants that has been on the market in the UK, but which was never sold in the US. It was also referred to as the e:Ny1 in some other markets; the resemblance to e:Ny6 as a naming convention is hard to miss.
So V3R could potentially refer to a car, but it seems unlikely given the other evidence we've seen so far about Honda's V3 two-wheeled engine development. As to where and when we'll actually get to see something beyond what we've seen so far, stay tuned.
