Analysts and journalists often make an equivalent blunder of clubbing the Japanese four – Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki – together. It is easy to do that: each of the four is known for making high-quality motorcycles and extending the technology envelope frequently.
Experienced motorcyclists point out that Honda is known for making high-quality, please-all motorcycles, while Yamaha has a sporty flair and targets the premium, more discerning audience. Meanwhile, Kawasaki is the wild one, and Suzuki has carved a niche in making high-quality, highly reliable motorcycles.
Together, the four had a 43% share of the global powered two-wheeler industry in 2024. However, looking at the sales numbers shows that the difference is stark. In 2024, Honda sold 18.82m two-wheelers. Yamaha was a distant second with sales of 4.9m two-wheelers. Suzuki was even smaller, with only two million two-wheelers sold, while Kawasaki was very niche, with only 410k motorcycles sold in 2024.
So when the four of them decided to form the Gachaco battery swapping consortium in Japan, it was evident that it would be Honda playing the pipe and the others following.
Now these are the Japs and even cut-throat competition is dictated by logic. The four knew that Honda was much further down the rabbit hole than the other three when it came to cells and batteries. So, the red one was entrusted with leading Gachaco.
InsightEV – Global Electric Mobility
The broad principle was adopting Honda‘s MPP as the portable battery of choice, with Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Suzuki designing their two-wheelers around the battery format.
That did not happen.
Yamaha decided they do not have the bandwidth to design new electric scooters around the MPP and asked Honda to make some for them, which they will happily rebadge. They have piggybacked on Gogoro in Taiwan, so it’s not new.
InsightEV – Global Electric Mobility
Suzuki has been testing an electric version of the Burgman Street scooter with Honda MPPs for a long time, but with no commitment to develop it further. The brand recently introduced its first electric scooter – the e-Access / e-Address- in the Indian and Indonesian markets, and it comes with a 3.07 kWh LFP fixed battery, not the Honda MPPs.
Meanwhile, Kawasaki launched a couple of electric motorcycles, but they use packs from Foresee Power, not Honda.
In a nutshell, every Japanese brand acts independently and at times would surprise us with something we didn’t see coming.
Varying Commitments when it comes to electrification.
Honda is the most committed, even though it made a late start. The company has put out a detailed roadmap for electrification. It has set a public target of selling four million electric two-wheelers annually by 2030. That would mean that a large share of Honda‘s commuter range and some of its lifestyle range would have electric variants. The company is committed to launching a performance electric motorcycle in 2025 based on the concept unveiled at EICMA in November 2024.
Heck, it even has a solid-state battery pilot going on, even though those cells are unlikely to be piloted in two-wheelers soon.
Suzuki now has an electric scooter in markets where it matters the most – India and Indonesia. Expect the e-Address also to make it to Europe. There are more models under development. The electric Burgman Street keeps popping up in the media, and Suzuki explained it as a demonstration project.
There is also talk of an electric motocrosser, everyone’s favorite format when it comes to electrification. Even there, Honda and Yamaha seem to be much ahead in their journey.
Then, in January 2023, Suzuki said this as part of their FY 2030 plans regarding electrification in two-wheelers.
For small and mid-sized motorcycles, which are used for daily transportation such as commuting to work, school or shopping, we will introduce a battery EV in FY 2024. We plan to launch 8 models by FY 2030 with a battery EV ratio of 25%. For large motorcycles for leisure purposes, we are considering adopting carbon neutral fuels.
Sounds reasonable. Suzuki might have been reading from the generic “Powertrain Planning Handbook for Japanese Manufacturers.” Everyone else has pretty much the same ideas.
When it comes to Yamaha and Kawasaki, they do not even have these goalposts in the sand of ‘launching X number of EVs by year Y.’ They are far too independent and much too focused on their profitable sports bike businesses. With Chinese brands like CF Moto, Benelli, Kove, and QJ Motor snapping at their heels, they have to be.
There has also been a realignment in how each of them perceives the ICE sports bike business.
Yamaha is going for narrower, leaner, more rideable motorcycles like the R9 and the R7. Meanwhile, the MT-09 and MT-07 remain their money-spinners in the lifestyle-daily-ride segment. They have always worked hard to be seen as a premium manufacturer with a quirk.
However, Kawasaki is the most experimental and extroverted of the four manufacturers. It makes no qualms about its quirks. The Green One has a wide range of motorcycles, though recent sales trends are not in its favor. The company’s estimated global sales were 410k units in 2024. They were 444k units in 2023 and 555k units in 2022. It’s a continuous decline that the green one has not yet been able to stop.
If Not Electric, Then What?
Apart from Gachaco, the Japanese four are also tied together in Japan’s HySE (Hydrogen Small-mobility and Engine) program. The program, started in mid-2023, aims to develop hydrogen-fueled two-wheelers. Because logic dictated so, and because they had been on that track longer, Yamaha and Kawasaki have been entrusted with developing the Hydrogen-powered products. At the same time, Suzuki and Honda would support with R&D. Also involved are Toyota and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, both with significant skin in the Hydrogen game.
Each of them has been entrusted with specific tasks: Honda handles the model-based development, Suzuki handles the performance testing and reliability of engines, Yamaha works on vehicle safety, and Kawasaki focuses on refueling equipment safety. Toyota already has considerable expertise in Hydrogen engines, having developed a hydrogen-powered V8 in partnership with Yamaha. Kawasaki Heavy Industries already has ships rolling in the seas designed to carry Hydrogen.
When we talk of Hydrogen here, we mean IC Engines capable of burning Hydrogen. This is important. ICE is important for the Japanese.
Let’s pause here and contemplate why the world needs electric motorcycles. What are the characteristics of ICE (in terms of motorcycles) that make them bad?
Pros: They make a sound (exhaust note), vibrate, and look good.
Cons: They are not green.
Note that we leave out the reliability bit here – a well-made modern IC engine is more reliable than a poorly made motor. It’s an apples-to-walnuts comparison we would like to stay out of.
So the only negative thing seems to be pollution.
Hydrogen solves that to a great extent. While not completely clean, hydrogen-burning ICE engines emit no Carbon gases. They still emit Nitrogen Oxides, and that’s a problem.
The Japs are Hy for Hydrogen
Suzuki, Yamaha, and Kawasaki have been working on Hydrogen as a combustible fuel for IC Engines.
Suzuki has been teasing hydrogen-powered concepts for many years, namely the Crosscage motorcycle (2007) and the Burgman (2009). However, both were Hydrogen Fuel cell-powered concepts. The one where Suzuki plans to use Hydrogen as a combustible fuel was the Suzuki Burgman scooter prototype unveiled in 2023.
Yamaha has also been working on hydrogen-powered vehicles. In 2023, it showcased the YXZ 1000R, an off-highway vehicle powered with a Hydrogen engine.
Kawasaki has taken Hydrogen to the other end of the spectrum – superbikes. In July 2024, it mounted two panniers with Hydrogen canisters on the H2-SX and demonstrated its working in a public event.
Saying that, Hydrogen remains a challenge, and here, the engines have run ahead of the vehicle packaging and refueling infrastructure. We are still a couple of years away from getting anything, and it remains to be seen if this remains a Japan-California fad or goes beyond.
For instance, the Hydrogen cylinder in the Suzuki Burgman Hydrogen is at 70 MPa (10,000 PSi). Compare that to automotive CNG tanks, which operate at less than one-third of this pressure. Engineering such a high-pressure tank is elaborate, and the manufacturing costs would be high.
Also, public perception = Hindenburg
Then, there are the vehicle packaging challenges. Like any pressurised gaseous fuel, Hydrogen needs a lot of packaging in return for very little range. Think of a motorcycle the size of Honda Goldwing with panniers, except all the panniers are full of Hydrogen canisters. It’s impractical.
The rider may decide to plant 100 saplings instead.
Then, there is the refueling aspect of things. The costs for refueling stations are mind-boggling for the developing world.
These are challenges that HySE would collectively like to tackle. We have no doubt that (based on the firepower they have) the challenges would be tackled. However, it’s not something that would make hydrogen-powered ICE engines a part of anyone’s 2026 spring-summer collection.
Kawasaki mentions the early 2030s, which is about 100 years away.
With Hydrogen out of the way, we were relieved that the Japs would now be focused on EVs since that is the only production-ready green technology.
But then they started doing hybrids, and we were far too flummoxed.
Hy for Hydrogen and then Hy for Hybrids…Why?
Both Yamaha and Kawasaki love hybrids. The Green One blessed us with the Ninja 7 Hybrid last year. Yamaha has teased the XMax SPHEV concept, a mid-size scooter with a single-cylinder engine and an electric powertrain in a series-parallel system.
The core reason hybrids remain a choice is that they lower the average carbon footprint for the entire range. From a customer’s perspective, it improves fuel efficiency significantly, removes range anxiety, and becomes a practical everyday-use solution.
Considering solid-state battery tech is still in its infancy, performance all-electric motorcycles marrying practicality, range, and affordability all-in-one are about a decade away. A hybrid becomes an elegant solution that can bridge the gap. For someone like Kawasaki, who has at least 30 performance motorcycle choices in its portfolio, each targeting a micro-niche, a hybrid adds even more firepower to target the customer.
The Challenges of Hybrids: Packaging
A Hybrid, depending on the way you do it, has the best of both worlds.
It also has the worst.
First, they need to pack in many more components, making packaging a challenge. Remember, you need to pack two powertrains and their energy banks. Sure, everything can be slightly reduced in size, but there is a limit to how much that can be done without affecting performance or usability.
To make this a fair comparison, let’s see what the Kawasaki Z 7 Hybrid packs compared to the Z650, the closest all-ICE motorcycle within the Kawasaki stable.
The Z650 puts out 67 PS, while the Z7 Hybrid puts out a collective (ICE + electric motor) 68.5 PS, making them the closest matches in the range.
The Z650 has a 15-litre fuel tank, but the Z7 Hybrid still has to pack 14.0 litres. A liter removed does not improve the packaging significantly.
Then there are the engines – the Z650 has a 649cc twin-cylinder engine, and the Z7 has a 451cc twin. A 30% reduction in engine size should liberate some volume, but not by much – they still have two cylinders to pack.
The battery must still be protected within the frame members – it’s a sensitive organ. So it cannot be packed outside the frame members, where it may be damaged in a crash.
In the end, Kawasaki runs out of conventional packaging space and puts the Z7 Hybrid’s battery pack inside the rear subframe. As a result, the tail section of the Z7 and Ninja 7 Hybrids appears fatter. Modern motorcycle design is increasingly moving to narrower, ‘hanging-in-the-air’ look tail sections, and arguably, Kawasaki has done as neat a job as possible; there is a noticeable difference in the tail sections.
There is an even bigger difference in the weight – more components would increase weight, which is a forgone conclusion. In this case, the Ninja Z650 weighs 196 kg, while the Ninja 7 Hybrid weighs 228 kg. That’s a 32 kg difference, 13 of which comes from the battery. We estimate another 10 kg from the motor and the remaining to be accounted for by the ancillary components, an increased wheelbase, and a larger body.
It gets worse with other body style formats
Manufacturers have been used to sharing engines across multiple motorcycles and body style formats. It is typical to find the same engine doing duty in very different models – cruisers to nakeds and ADVs, with a different state of tune, obviously. So when Kawasaki developed the Z7 Hybrid, it was expected that they would use the same family of components in other body style formats as well.
With a conventional ICE motorcycle, it was easy to do that – the location of the engine, the tank, and the other big bits was well-defined.
It changes with hybrids – now you have at least four big bits to position in the package, two of which should not be very close to each other.
Patent drawings indicate that Kawasaki is also working on a hybrid version of the Eliminator (cruiser) and the Versys (ADV). All of them carry the same 451cc twin-cylinder engine and likely the same battery pack. However, each of them has a completely different layout.
In the Eliminator, the battery pack is located right above the cylinder head. It cannot be under the seat, as this is a low-slung cruiser. With the battery above the cylinder head, the fuel tank space is compromised and Kawasaki solves for it by splitting it in two. In the below patent drawing, (81) and (82) are the two fuel tanks. They spill over the sides of the trellis frame.
Similarly, in the Versys, the battery protrudes inside the tank space, making the tank wider and adding visual bulk.
This packaging difference means that the work is almost equivalent to engineering three distinct motorcycles.
Yamaha XMAX SPHEV Hybrid
If Kawasaki has complex hybrids, Yamaha hits the ball out of the park. Last month, it revealed the XMAX SPHEV Hybrid, a mid-size hybrid scooter. While the Kawasakis are fairly large, full-sized motorcycles, this is a mid-size scooter – packaging is even tighter.
To be fair, this is a concept, and the real machine may be a year away.
The thematic visuals of the XMAX Hybrid indicate not one but two electrical motors in play. While one acts as the drive motor, the other acts as a motor generator and is mounted coaxially with the engine crankshaft.
Because there is an electric motor to support it, the XMAX carries only a single cylinder engine with the cylinder head parallel to the ground. One of the motors is coaxial with the engine crank and acts as a generator.
The second motor directly drives the rear wheel and is mounted at the rear of the swingarm. In terms of usage, the rear motor can be coupled or decoupled, making this an all-electric powertrain or a hybrid. The battery and control electronics are in front of the engine.
The Advantages of Hybrids
We said that “Hybrids provide the best of both worlds.” Let’s retract that and instead say that Hybrids lessen the worst of both worlds. In the case of both Yamaha and Kawasaki, the hybrids do just that. Large engines are polluting, but with hybrids, you can do with a small one. Large motors are battery-sapping, but in a hybrid setup, you can do with a small one. Large batteries are expensive but in a hybrid setup, you can do with a small one.
See, it’s not so bad.
There are practical advantages as well. Since both the Kawasaki and Yamaha are strong hybrids, there is an option to run them as an all-electric machine over very short distances (the batteries are tiny). More than that, the battery allows a “walk mode” in the Kawasaki where you can roll the bike forward at eight kph and a “reverse mode” where you can reverse the bike at about three kph. That’s handy for a 228 kg machine.
Where does that leave electric?
It’s a multi-powertrain world we are heading to. Electric may be a part of the future, but not the only future. With the democratising nature of electric powertrains, any group holding a 43% share of the global market would like to delay the revolution as much as possible.
For now, the Japs are working on every front. Unlike any financially constrained startup, they can afford to. The consensus seems to be Hydrogen for large motorcycles, hybrids for mid-size and large-sized machines, and electric for small scooters/mopeds.
Just for fun…
