HOLY HYBRID!

Step into any car dealer in 2021 and you’ll find a vast number of their wares are hybrids – using electric motors alongside petrol engines to get a boost in economy and a reduction in emissions. The same thinking has singularly failed to get any traction in the world of motorcycles, but there’s a growing body of evidence to show that the hybrid idea might yet take off on two wheels as well.

This year we expect to see Kawasaki’s first hybrid motorcycle. The firm started dropping hints in late 2020, culminating in a video showing snatches of a prototype machine last November, but it’s a project that’s actually been under development for well over a decade. Patents dating as far back as 2007 show the first hints of Kawasaki’s idea to use electric power alongside a petrol engine and, while the company has stated outright that it has no plans for an electric production bike, there’s been no such statement in relation to a hybrid machine.

Whether the Kawasaki hybrid makes its debut as a prototype, a concept or a fully-fledged production bike, the fact the firm has embraced the idea while shunning the idea of pure electric power – despite revealing a confusingly old electric prototype in 2019 – shows that the idea of hybrid power for motorcycles is getting a new lease of life after years of being dismissed as impractical.

The technology has been wholeheartedly embraced by car makers. Honda has committed to selling only hybrid and all-electric cars in Europe by 2025, for instance, and nations are scrambling to introduce