-November 28, 2021 at 10:57 p.m. Pacific Time
In terms of electric motorcycle innovation, Kawasaki may not be in the lead, but recent plans at least indicate that the company will not be the last major motorcycle manufacturer to embrace the future of electric mobility.
Although Kawasaki has not included its electric motorcycles in its lineup, the company announced last month that it will be fully electric by 2035.
And progress seems to be faster than some people expected, because Kawasaki now says it will launch three electric models in 2022.
As Kawasaki CEO Hiroshi Ito explained to the crowd at the EICMA Milan Motorcycle Show in 2021:
"I want to share with you a new promise: next year, in 2022, we will showcase at least three electric vehicles worldwide. That is a promise."
The company is expected to show off its first electric motorcycle at EICMA this year, and I even showed up at the Milan booth to get a glimpse of it.
But unfortunately, the electric prototype car that Kawasaki's R&D department has been producing for many years has not appeared, and the mass-produced motorcycle based on this work has not appeared.
Kawasaki may be heading in the right direction, but if the company wants to be a leader in this field, it must catch up.
Other established motorcycle manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson have been producing electric motorcycles for many years.
All-electric motorcycle companies like Zero Motorcycles have been putting electric two-wheelers on the road for a longer period of time, 15 years ahead.
Kawasaki still has a place among the other four major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers, including Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki in addition to Kawasaki. Yamaha and Honda may have been playing electric scooters for years, but neither promised to bring full-size electric scooters to the market as early as next year (or not at all).
Suzuki also has some time on the electric scooter project, but there is no full-size electric motorcycle.
This means that if Kawasaki can deliver on its promise, the company may become the first Japanese motorcycle manufacturer to not just talk about entering the electric motorcycle market.
Although I really want to see Kawasaki succeed, we have been rushed by the high deadline of electric motorcycles before, so when I see it I will believe it.
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Micah Toll is a personal electric car enthusiast, battery fan, and the author of Amazon’s top best-selling books "DIY Lithium Battery", "DIY Solar" and "The Ultimate DIY Electric Bike Guide."
You can send him a reminder via Micah@electrek.co
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