Do you remember at EICMA in November, 2021, when Kawasaki Motors president Hiroshi Ito said that Team Green would launch three electric and/or hybrid models by the end of 2022? It was a bold statement—but it’s a time for bold moves if you’re a legacy OEM and you’re looking to get into the electric game.
On May 18, 2022, Kawasaki dropped a teaser for what appears to be the first of its hinted electric models. The full launch, the teaser tells us, is coming on June 7—which is only a few weeks away.
What could it be? The teaser, as posted on Kawasaki’s Twitter account, is 15 seconds long. It features no spoken dialogue—just a carefully calculated music bed intended to amp up your excitement. Perhaps “amp” is the key word here, given that the text also reads, “The Good Times are Electric,” followed by a lightning-bolt emoji. It then tells you to “Stay tuned for June 7th” and gives you a URL where you can sign up for more information.
The Good Times are Electric ⚡️Stay tuned for June 7th. Sign up to learn more at: https://t.co/sNf6sioczE#GoodTimes #Kawasaki pic.twitter.com/T0qP6qmqJG
— Kawasaki USA (@KawasakiUSA) May 18, 2022
In the teaser video, you see a small child from the back, dressed in motocross gear. They’re standing on an MX course, peering off into the distance with arms crossed in front of them, waiting for something. The camera zooms forward across the course, and we see a close-up of another kid’s helmet, and the reflectivity of their goggles. They’re clearly about to launch from the start, but the launch isn’t shown in this video—presumably, because it’s not June 7, 2022 yet.
Go to the URL that Kawasaki mentions in its tweet and there’s a form to enter your email information and ZIP code, along with the text “Something electric is coming.” The same 15-second teaser plays on loop as the background of the information signup form.
Do we have any ideas what this bike might be called? Once again, the inimitable Dennis Chung over at Motorcycle.com has some valuable insight here. He spotted an accidental (maybe) leak from Kawasaki, of a test webpage that was briefly set for public view ahead of its time. It clearly shows a placeholder image above the model name “Elektrode,” which is listed as an electric balance bike. Kawasaki has already trademarked that name in multiple markets, including the U.S.. (Since it’s spelled with a “k” instead of a “c,” we’re pretty sure it has nothing to do with the Pokémon of the same pronunciation.)
Now, an electric balance bike makes sense, as a thing Kawasaki might want to market—but if that’s what this particular model is, then doesn’t this teaser oversell it just a little? Balance bikes are meant to get small children comfortable with the concept of being on two wheels in the first place, and gradually learning to operate a powered two-wheeler. Once they’ve mastered that, then they can move up to dirt bikes—and a dirt bike is what’s really hinted at in the teaser.
Could this indicate that Kawasaki has more than one electric bike aimed at children planned in the near-future? I mean, it seems like most makers of kids’ electric bikes offer more than one option, just because kids grow pretty quickly. This teaser doesn’t look like a balance bike—but luckily, we won’t have too long to wait to find out.
