It’s now the end of September 2023, and for over a year now, Kawasaki has been giving the world tantalizing glimpses into its electric and hybrid motorcycle development. Its electric bike plans have been discussed since at least 2019, while the hybrid motorcycle plans first started making waves a little later, beginning in 2020.
It’s reasonable to think that OEMs have plenty of conversations going on behind closed doors, so there’s no good way to know for sure when its internal discussions truly began. What we do know is that Kawasaki brought both its electric and its hybrid motorcycle prototypes to the 2022 Suzuka 8 Hours race in Japan. There, attendees got a look at both bikes out on the circuit, and those of us elsewhere in the world got to see photos and video.
