Kawasaki is developing a hybrid drive for motorcycles. Kawasaki recently confirmed this with a new teaser video on its official YouTube channel. However, there is no concrete information about this spectacular announcement . There is no talk about how the drive should be configured, what kind of motorcycles it is intended for or when we can expect series production.
Using the example of this cityscape of Paris, Kawasaki explains how one imagines the use of a hybrid motorcycle: You come from the left via the motorway, where you only use the gasoline engine - also to save the battery and not use up the battery. Then you enter the inner city districts, where you shut down the gasoline engine and drive exclusively with a battery drive, locally emission-free. If you then drive out of the city again, you can switch to the combined mode, where the gasoline engine and electric motor help together - just as you have been used to with hybrid pioneer Toyota Prius from the start.
From the beginning of 2024 only motorcycles with Euro 4 or 5 (built from 2017) will be allowed to drive in, by 2030 the entire city center should only be able to drive without fossil fuels. You don't have to be a prophet to recognize that, in the long run, more and more metropolises will exclude individual traffic with internal combustion engines.
Against this background, the hybrid drive for motorcycles suddenly makes sense. In contrast to scooters, which are mostly only used for short distances, pure electric motorcycles will continue to have a range problem for the foreseeable future. So if you want a motorcycle for longer distances, but still want to drive into future zero-emission zones, a hybrid two-wheeler would be well served.
Modern plug-in hybrid cars (PHEV) offer around 40 kilometers of purely electric range; that would have to be similar for a motorcycle with this purpose. And for what kind of motorcycle would this drive be useful? Clearly, for a commuter vehicle that is not too small, perhaps a kind of sports tourer that is functional in everyday life and entertaining on excursions - and that offers enough space to accommodate the many technical components including the battery.
Even if it doesn't actually make any technical sense, urban transport policy could certainly give such a hybrid drive its justification. We are excited and hope for greater success than the first hybrid scooter.
@via Kawasaki.
