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Part of Kawasaki Motors Ltd.’s new direction as its own business entity, the Japanese motorcycle brand has ambitious goals for its near future, as it has announced plans for motorcycles with electric, hybrid, and even hydrogen drivetrains.

The strategy outlines that Kawasaki will debut 10 electric and hybrid motorcycles by the year 2025. That plan also includes the development of five off-road models that will use “advanced fuel” power plants.

Ducati's announcement that it is making its final production run of the Ducati 1299 Panigale R Final Edition got me thinking this week. This could be the very last v-twin superbike from the Italian brand, making it a true "Final Edition" motorcycle? It certainly appears so.

Right now, the Italian marque is betting its superbike future on the V4 platform, which means it could be another 5 years or longer (10 years could be a reasonable number, even) before Ducati debuts its next superbike platform.

What do we imagine that motorcycle will look like? Where do we imagine the motorcycle industry will be in the next five to ten years? That future isn't too far away, but the answer is still hard to fathom.

Can we really see a future where Ducati builds another v-twin engine? Understand, the Superquadro motor is the pinnacle of v-twin design, and pushes the limits of what kind of power such an engine configuration can create.

This is the very reason that Ducati abandoned the Superquadro v-twin design for the Desmosedici Stradale V4. That is a big deal in Ducatista land, but it is a notable move for the motorcycle industry as a whole.

So, the thought experiment evolves from this, and we begin to wonder what is not only in store for a brand like Ducati, whose history is rooted in a particular engine design, but also what is in store for the other brands of the motorcycle industry, who have been tied to thermic engines for over a century.

For the Japanese brands, the hand that holds that future has been tipped, with turbocharged and supercharged designs teased by three out of the Big Four manufacturers. We have even see Kawasaki bringing its own supercharged motorcycles already to market already.

But, is this really the future? Or, is this resurgence of forced induction for motorcycles dead on arrival?

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September will be an historic day for the Vespa scooter brand, as next month the Piaggio Group plans to begin finally the production of the Vespa Elettrica electric scooter.

Taking the classic Italian “wasp” design that has warmed the hearts of many owners, the Elettrica adds an electric drive train to the mix, to ensure Vespa’s iconic status endures for many generations to come.

Initially slated to be in production by “late 2017”, it has taken Piaggio a bit longer than expected to get the Vespa Elettrica out the door. But, with production set to start in September, at least the Italians are making good on their promise to make this model a reality.

While we are happy to report the rebirth of the Cagiva brand, and the pending launch of MV Agusta’s new Brutale 1000, we do have some bad news to report from Italy, as this will be the last year of the MV Agusta F4 superbike, for quite some time.

While the Italian brand plans to debut three new models from its four-cylinder platform over the next three years, the company’s superbike offering will be the last to be revitalized.

As such, the Brutale 1000 will debut this year as a 2019 machine, a “neo-classical” bike will debut next year as a 2020 machine, and a new “F4” will debut a year after that, as a 2021 model year bike.

This news is about to get worse, before it gets better, so let me explain further.

Regular Asphalt & Rubber readers should recognize the name TVS as the brand behind BMW’s small-displacement lineup of motorcycles, with the Indian firm also releasing its 300cc-class sport bike, the TVS Apache RR 310.

Here is another reasons to take notice of the TVS Motor Company though, as it just debuted a hybrid gas-electric cruiser concept, which not only is interesting from a technical perspective, but it looks pretty good too.

For the Western world, the TVS Zeppelin isn’t going to blow the doors off the market, at least not with the quoted specs, but TVS does have some clever ideas for the model.

It can be hard to get excited about a new scooter design for the 2018 model year, especially when so many other crazy machines are being unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show today (new Honda Gold Wing, Yamaha’s three-wheeled motorcycle of awesome, and the Kawasaki Ninja 400…just to name a few), but give us a minute here.

One of the less-publicized releases from Big Red caught our attention today, two scooters in fact: the Honda PCX Electric and the Honda PCX Hybrid. As the names suggest, both machines are built off the same basic concept, though they differ in their drivetrain.

An interesting find from the folks at Motorcycle.com, it looks like Suzuki is getting crazy with its scooter designs, as a patent for a two-wheel drive scooter has popped-up at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and that is not the only item of interest when looking at the front-end of the motorcycle.

The 2WD system features an electric hub motor on the front wheel, which assists the gas-powered rear wheel, making this a hybrid-powered motorcycle. The patent also shows a a non-conventional front-end suspension setup, on what looks like Burgman scooter design.

BMW aftermarket parts specialist Wunderlich really knows how to promote itself. The German company is known for its one-off machines and concepts, some which have tipped BMW’s hand when it comes to new models. For a boutique German brand, it is impressive that it is known around the world.

So, it shouldn’t surprise us that Wunderlich is grabbing headlines once again, this time with an intriguing concept: a two-wheel drive BMW R1200GS that uses a hybrid drivetrain with an electric front-end that was developed with Italy’s electric specialist Evolt.

Wunderlich calls its creation the BMW R1200GS LC, and it features a 10 kW hub motor on its front wheel, in addition to the GS’s boxer-twin gas engine. The electric motor has regenerative braking, which helps charge its modest battery pack (located under the front beak, to our eye).

It seems that the Japanese are really exploring the idea of leaning multi-wheel concepts. First was the Yamaha Teseract, with its four wheels of leaning fury, which gave rise to the production of the Yamaha Tricity scooter, and the Yamaha 03GEN-f & Yamaha 03GEN-x concepts.

Team Green has explored this space with the Kawasaki J Concept, Piaggio has its MP3 500 maxi-scooter (and supposedly has the lockdown on patents for this innovative design), and now Honda has its Neowing – a gas/electric hybrid leaning three-wheeler.