Kawasaki Goes Electric: Two Battery Bikes For 2023 (And 4-Cyl ZX-4R!)

[advrider]

Kawasaki plans to sell two electric street bikes in 2023, according to paperwork filed with regulators in the US.

As usual, the news comes from the sleuths at Motorcycle.com, where top detective Dennis Chung found documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that indicate two new electric motorcycles coming next year. You can see all his investigative work at MO, but here’s a quick summary below:

The proof comes from an updated vehicle identification number (VIN) decoder for 2023 Kawasaki models that was released by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The VIN decoder lists two models going by the unfamiliar code names NX011AP and NR011AP. The NX model is listed as a “Super Sports,” while the NR model is listed as a “Sports” model. For Kawasaki, this usually indicates a sportbike and a naked model, respectively. The Ninja 400, for example, is considered a “Super Sports” model while Kawasaki calls the Z400 a “Sports” model. The Ninja 400 has the model code EX400 while the Z400 is the ER400, so we can deduce the the NX is a sportbike and the NR is a naked model.

Chung then shows a screengrab from the regulator’s website that indicates these new NX and NR models are battery-powered. Nice! And they appear to make 14.8 horsepower. Not so nice. Maybe they’re pit bike-style machines, like the Z125 Pro or Honda’s Grom. Expect an answer this fall.

The ZX-4R cometh

In other news—the Kawasaki ZX-4R is also in the NHTSA database, says MO. Not familiar? That’s because it hasn’t actually been officially released, but its predecessor is very familiar to Asian customers. The ZX-25R came to market in 2020 with a four-cylinder 250-class engine, making about 50 horsepower from an engine that revs to 17,000 rpm! But sadly, it’s never made it to Euro or North American buyers.

However, a big-bored 400 version, the ZX-4R, was long-rumored, and now appears to be a reality for next year, since Kawi filed documents to bring it to the US. Nice. Are 400s the next 600s? We’ll find out soon.

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