Kawasaki is looking to the future and seems to be choosing with increasing conviction the path of dual motorization, electric and endothermic, for the motorcycles of the not too distant future.
While space to house batteries and electric motors is not a major problem for a four-wheeled vehicle, the challenge for motorcycles seems to be how to fit batteries, a traditional engine and an electric motor into the frame and shape of a bike.
It’s not an easy issue to solve and it’s causing some headaches for the engineers working on this aspect. According to the patents filed, the next Kawasaki bikes to use hybrid technology will be the Versys and the Eliminator; on both models, the battery will be positioned above the engine head, with the engine airbox mounted just behind; so what happens to the fuel tank?
And that’s the crux of the patent, which states that in the case of the Eliminator, the tank will be moved to the outside of the trellis frame, in two separate tanks, one on each side, while in the case of the Versys, it will be wider to accommodate and conceal the battery. In short, a nice little Tetris-style game that will also have to take into account the bike’s weight distribution in order to maintain excellent riding dynamics.