Kawasaki reveals specs for electric Ninja and Z motorcycles, but they’re embarrassing
Kawasaki has officially announced several key specs for its upcoming electric motorcycles, as well as expected release dates. The only problem for these two highly anticipated models is that the new Kawasaki Ninja e-1 and Z e-1 aren’t going to knock anyone’s riding socks off.
We’ve already had a few hints regarding the entry-level performance of the two bikes thanks to classification documents that we reported on last month.
But now we’ve got the official numbers straight from Team Green, and they aren’t pretty.
The Kawasaki Ninja e-1 (faired sport bike) and the Z e-1 (naked bike) will both share the same 5 kW electric motor. That chain-driving motor is rated for 9 kW of peak power, but only in bursts.
It’s meant to crank out a top speed of up to 99 km/h (61 mph), though it’s not yet clear if that is the sustained speed or rather a burst speed.
Some electric motorcycles include a boost mode that allows riders to access the motor’s peak power for several seconds, often useful when overtaking a slower vehicle. Though at these top speeds, overtaking may not be an issue with which riders will need to concern themselves.
The bikes feature two removable batteries that can be charged either on-board or separately with a docking station, allowing street-level parkers to charge in their apartments or elsewhere away from the bike itself.
Kawasaki tellingly hasn’t revealed info about the battery capacity or range on a single charge, but neither are expected to be very high. Removable batteries limit the capacity to something that can be carried, which means no one should expect these to be long-distance batteries.
The largest removable batteries I’ve seen so far were in my NIU NQiGT Long Range, which had a couple 2.1 kWh batteries, each weighing around 12 kg (26.5 lb.). Carrying the pair up to my apartment was doable, but barely. So the Kawasaki Ninja e-1 or Z e-1 landing with much more than 4.2 kWh of battery capacity is not likely.
Kawasaki is also part of a battery consortium pushing for adoption of Honda’s swappable batteries to become an industry standard. It’s not clear if Kawasaki adopted Honda’s 1.475 kWh battery packs, but if it did, then we’d be looking at a bike with a meager 2.95 kWh of battery capacity. There are electric bicycles with that much battery.
For comparison, the SONDORS Metacycle electric motorcycle has a 4 kWh battery pack and despite advertising a range of between 60-80 miles (96-130 km), most owners have indicated that mixed riding nets closer to half of the claimed range.
So these are obviously very much commuter-level electric motorcycles, to say the least.
But don’t for a minute think these aren’t full-featured bikes. As the company explained itself, “Kawasaki Z e-1 and Ninja e-1 riders can also amaze their friends with a walk mode that allows these machines to maneuver at walking pace in both forward AND reverse – particularly useful for tight parking spots or moving backwards up an incline.” So sure, they don’t go very fast. But they can move… slowly!
To be fair, reverse is a useful feature on motorcycles, one that is easy to include on electrics but rarely seen on combustion engine motorcycles. But let’s not bend over backwards patting ourselves on the back when electric bicycles have the same features.
Both models are expected to debut in the UK next month, but the estimated price is as elusive as the battery specs. Kawasaki has remained mum on both, and so we’ll have to wait just a bit longer to find out how much the bikes will cost.
Electrek’s Take
I don’t mean to be overly harsh here, because the specs alone aren’t bad for a basic, simple commuter e-motorcycle. And the bikes look great, in true Ninja fashion.
The problem is that this is the Kawasaki Ninja we’re talking about here. It’s not a commuter motorcycle, or at least it wasn’t meant to be. Even the underpowered Ninja 125cc released a few years ago can hit nearly 75 mph (121 km/h), making it highway capable. But the Ninja e-1 sounds like it will struggle to slowly hit 60 mph (96 km/h), making it arguably dangerous to take on highways.
But again, these are obviously meant to be urban bikes, so maybe they will appeal to an urban crowd.
The real decider here though is going to be the price. Considering you can get truly highway-capable commuter e-motorcycles like the Ryvid Anthem and CSC RX1E for below US $8,000, the Kawasaki Ninja e-1 and Z e-1 will need to be considerably cheaper to achieve any market penetration. I mean, you can buy an electric scooter with similar specs for US $6K, for crying out loud.
What we’re looking at are basically SONDORS Metacycle-level specs, though at least from a company that has been around for longer and may continue to be around long after SONDORS.
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Thanks to Trump’s repeated executive order attacks on US clean energy policy, nearly $8 billion in investments and 16 new large-scale factories and other projects were cancelled, closed, or downsized in Q1 2025.
The $7.9 billion in investments withdrawn since January are more than three times the total investments cancelled over the previous 30 months, according to nonpartisan policy group E2’s latest Clean Economy Works monthly update.
However, companies continue to invest in the US renewable sector. Businesses in March announced 10 projects worth more than $1.6 billion for new solar, EV, and grid and transmission equipment factories across six states. That includes Tesla’s plan to invest $200 million in a battery factory near Houston that’s expected to create at least 1,500 new jobs. Combined, the projects are expected to create at least 5,000 new permanent jobs if completed.
Michael Timberlake of E2 said, “Clean energy companies still want to invest in America, but uncertainty over Trump administration policies and the future of critical clean energy tax credits are taking a clear toll. If this self-inflicted and unnecessary market uncertainty continues, we’ll almost certainly see more projects paused, more construction halted, and more job opportunities disappear.”
March’s 10 new projects bring the overall number of major clean energy projects tracked by E2 to 390 across 42 states and Puerto Rico. Companies have said they plan to invest more than $133 billion in these projects and hire 122,000 permanent workers.
Since Congress passed federal clean energy tax credits in August 2022, 34 clean energy projects have been cancelled, downsized, or shut down altogether, wiping out more than 15,000 jobs and scrapping $10 billion in planned investment, according to E2 and Atlas Public Policy.
However, in just the first three months of 2025, after Trump started rolling back clean energy policies, 13 projects were scrapped or scaled back, totaling more than $5 billion. That includes Bosch pulling the plug on its $200 million hydrogen fuel cell plant in South Carolina and Freyr Battery canceling its $2.5 billion battery factory in Georgia.
Republican-led districts have reaped the biggest rewards from Biden’s clean energy tax credits, but they’re also taking the biggest hits under Trump. So far, more than $6 billion in projects and over 10,000 jobs have been wiped out in GOP districts alone.
And the stakes are high. Through March, Republican districts have claimed 62% of all clean energy project announcements, 71% of the jobs, and a staggering 83% of the total investment.
A full map and list of announcements can be seen on E2’s website here. E2 says it will incorporate cancellation data in the coming weeks.
Read more: FREYR kills plans to build a $2.6 billion battery factory in Georgia
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Tesla has reportedly delayed the launch of its new “affordable EV,” which is believed to be a stripped-down Model Y, in the United States.
Last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk made a pivotal decision that altered the automaker’s direction for the next few years.
The CEO canceled Tesla’s plan to build a cheaper new “$25,000 vehicle” on its next-generation “unboxed” vehicle platform to focus solely on the Robotaxi, utilizing the latest technology, and instead, Tesla plans to build more affordable EVs, though more expensive than previously announced, on its existing Model Y platform.
Musk has believed that Tesla is on the verge of solving self-driving technology for the last few years, and because of that, he believes that a $25,000 EV wouldn’t make sense, as self-driving ride-hailing fleets would take over the lower end of the car market.
However, he has been consistently wrong about Tesla solving self-driving, which he first said would happen in 2019.
In the meantime, Tesla’s sales have been decreasing and the automaker had to throttle down production at all its manufacturing facilities.
That’s why, instead of building new, more affordable EVs on new production lines, Musk decided to greenlight new vehicles built on the same production lines as Model 3 and Model Y – increasing the utilization rate of its existing manufacturing lines.
Those vehicles have been described as “stripped-down Model Ys” with fewer features and cheaper materials, which Tesla said would launch in “the first half of 2025.”
Reuters is now reporting that Tesla is seeing a delay of “at least months” in launching the first new “lower-cost Model Y” in the US:
Tesla has promised affordable vehicles beginning in the first half of the year, offering a potential boost to flagging sales. Global production of the lower-cost Model Y, internally codenamed E41, is expected to begin in the United States, the sources said, but it would be at least months later than Tesla’s public plan, they added, offering a range of revised targets from the third quarter to early next year.
Along with the delay, the report also claims that Tesla aims to produce 250,000 units of the new model in the US by 2026. This would match Tesla’s currently reduced production capacity at Gigafactory Texas and Fremont factory.
The report follows other recent reports coming from China that also claimed Tesla’s new “affordable EVs” are “stripped-down Model Ys.”
The Chinese report references the new version of the Model 3 that Tesla launched in Mexico last year. It’s a regular Model 3, but Tesla removed some features, like the second-row screen, ambient lighting strip, and it uses fabric interior material rather than Tesla’s usual vegan leather.
The new Reuters report also said that Tesla planned to follow the stripped-down Model Y with a similar Model 3.
In China, the new vehicle was expected to come in the second half of 2025, and Tesla was waiting to see the impact of the updated Model Y, which launched earlier this year.
Electrek’s Take
These reports lend weight to what we have been saying for a year now: Tesla’s “more affordable EVs” will essentially be stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3.
While they will enable Tesla to utilize its currently underutilized factories more efficiently, they will also cannibalize its existing Model 3 and Y lineup and significantly reduce its already dwindling gross margins.
I think Musk will sell the move as being good in the long term because it will allow Tesla to deploy more vehicles, which will later generate more revenue through the purchase of the “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) package.
However, that has been his argument for years, and it has yet to pan out as FSD still requires driver supervision and likely will for years to come, resulting in an extremely low take-rate for the $8,000 package.
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Environment
Podcast: how Elon killed Tesla Model 2, global EV sales surge, and Chinese EVs keep killing it
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss how Elon Musk killed Tesla Model 2, global EV sales surging, how Chinese EVs keep killing it, and more.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET):
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