Kawasaki reveals hybrid fuel-EV sportsbike prototype

Kawasaki recently announced that it will go fully electric by 2035 in select world markets and the legendary Japanese bike maker has now proposed a hybrid sportsbike as it begins its ambitious journey towards full range electrification.

Kawasaki has become the first Japanese bike maker among others (Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki) to fully announce its plans for future electric vehicles. It plans to replace the conventional fuel-powered combustion engine with electric vehicles.

The brand is now formulating its roadmap towards electrification and has patented a hybrid sportsbike that is a mix and match of a conventional ICE with a small EV motor.

For the record, hybrid technology has been prevalent in cars for a long time, however, motorcycle makers have yet not adapted the technology because fuel saving gains were never really thought to be important for motorcycles which are already considered to be a comparatively economical mode of transport. At the same time, packing a relatively heavy self-charging battery into the tightly packaged frame isn't every bike maker's cup of tea.

However, Kawasaki has successfully managed to pack the battery by downsizing the engine in order to fit a battery in what appears to be a frame sourced from a Kawasaki Ninja 400 mule.

Apart from a self-charging battery, Kawasaki has also given the bike a semi-automatic transmission that the brand has been working on with its pure-electric prototype, named the Endeavour. While the new hybrid tech by Kawasaki isn’t classed as zero emissions in average consumption, but it can be driven in pure EV mode at slow speeds.