Kawasaki Z 7 Hybrid doubles down on Akashi’s latest tech
The Kawasaki Z 7 Hybrid has been launched, offering an unfaired exterior for the new hybrid powertrain from the Akashi marque
The Kawasaki Z 7 Hybrid has launched for 2024, bringing the new powertrain from Akashi to an unfaired variant.
The Kawasaki Z 7 Hybrid is of course not the first hybrid motorcycle from Kawasaki, after the Ninja 7 Hybrid was officially launched earlier this year, but it does mark the first time that Kawasaki has used its new hybrid tech in a naked bike.
The Z 7 Hybrid keeps to Kawasaki’s traditional sports naked styling, with and aggressive look front-to-back, and marries that with the silver and green paint that appears to be the colours designated to hybrid models by the Japanese manufacturer.
Making use of the same 451cc twin-cylinder combustion engine and 9kW traction motor combination as the Ninja 7 Hybrid, the Z 7 Hybrid makes the same 58bhp as its faired sibling, and offers up to 12km of electric-only drive before the internal combustion engine (ICE) kicks in to charge the battery. An ‘Eco-Hybrid’ mode provides a combination of electric and ICE power, and for the rider to select either manual or automatic gearshifts. Manual shifting is operated via a switch on the left bar, which has no clutch lever. As with the Ninja 7, the Z 7 also features a ‘walk mode’.
The steel trellis frame, and cycle parts, are also carried over from the Ninja 7 to the Z 7.
Kawasaki expects the 2024 Z 7 Hybrid to be available in UK dealers by next May, and pricing will be confirmed nearer to that time. Two colour options will be available: ‘Metallic Bright Silver/Metallic Matte Lime Green/Ebony’, and ‘Metallic Matte Graphene Steel Gray/Ebony/Metallic Graphite Gray’.
Alex has been working in the motorcycle industry for as long as he has been at Visordown, which has been since March 2022 so we'll let you work it out from there. He's the new guy. He'd be fetching us all coffee 'round the clock if he wasn't based in the arse end of nowhere.
