According to Motorcycle.com, Kawasaki has applied for trademarks that indicate they could be working on larger scooters.
In 2013, Kawasaki announced they were selling a scooter labeled the J300. Not every market got the step-through (we haven’t seen them in Canada yet), but it was a big step for Kawasaki, a company that stayed away from scooters for a long time.
Now, Motorcycle.com says Kawasaki has supposedly filed for trademarks for two new scooters, the J500 and J125, indicating they plan on selling both a commuter scoot and a maxi-scoot. The J300 was based on a Kymco design, and while we haven’t seen any confirmation the J500 and J125 would be Kymco-derived, Kymco does have 500 cc and 125 cc models in their lineup.
CMG Slant (Zac Kurylyk)
The introduction of the J300 was a big move for Team Green; Kawasaki has traditionally held a reputation for building edgy, high-performance bikes, not step-throughs. But there’s money in the scooter market, and maybe Kawasaki has grown tired of seeing the competition rake in all the profits in the commuter market. Or maybe, just maybe, they’re going to borrow from the H2 lineup, stick a blower on a step-through and give us a supercharged Kawasaki scooter. It’s highly unlikely and would be unprofitable and dangerous, but a man can dream …
