Kawasaki shows off ‘Z e-bike’ at Intermot

Kawasaki’s new e-bike concept is shown at Intermot 2022

For the first time since the pandemic, the Intermot motorcycle show has taken off in Germany and Kawasaki wasted no time in showing what could be the future motorcycle the brand would offer.

First seen in action at the Suzuka 8-Hour endurance, the EV model was one element of a wide-ranging speech presented by the Managing Director of Kawasaki Motors Europe, Masaya Tsuruno.

Reflecting on the commitment of Hiroshi Ito, the President of Kawasaki Motors, to present at least three electric vehicles globally by 2022, Tsuruno stressed that the prototype - which was on display for just the duration of the Press Conference - would form the basis of an actual future production machine.

While underlining Kawasaki’s continuing commitment to Internal Combustion Engines, Tsuruno added that both E-fuels and bio-fuels were among the options being considered in addition to the much-reported research into hydrogen as a possible carbon-neutral choice.

At about the same time last year, Kawasaki announced that by 2035, all their motorcycle offerings will either be electric-powered or powered by some form of carbon-neutral fuel.

While the details of this new “e-bike” were not disclosed by Kawasaki, the bike has some resemblance with the Z250 and estimates put the electric engine’s power somewhere around 17 PS, which is roughly the equivalent of a 125cc motorcycle.

Kawasaki now part of the SBMC

One of the solutions to address the long charging time of electric vehicles is to have a unified system where batteries can be swapped across all brands and makes. Because of this, the Swappable Batteries Motorcycle Consortium (SBMC) was born, and from just 4 companies, it has now grown to 21 which includes Kawasaki.

That said, these e-bikes from Kawasaki may use some system that is compatible with the parameters set by the SBMC.