2014 Kawasaki J300 Revealed for European Market

Kawasaki officially announced the new J300, the company’s first scooter introduced for the European market. At the moment, U.S. availability has not been announced.

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News of Kawasaki’s first scooter for western markets developed very quickly, with reports last week of the J300 spotted filming in Milan, and the first spy photo emerging over the weekend. Kawasaki has now revealed more information about the J300, though we are still awaiting the release of full specifications.

What we do know is the J300 was developed by Kawasaki design and engineering teams, with the engine and chassis sourced from Taiwanese manufacturer Kymco. BMW has a similar arrangement with Kymco supplying the engines for the C650 GT and C600 Sport scooters. It’s not much of a surprise then, that the J300 bares some resemblance to Kymco’s Downtown 300i and K-XCT 300i. We await Kawasaki’s full specs, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the J300 uses the Downtown 300i’s 299cc single-cylinder engine which claims 29.5 hp at 8500 rpm and 18.1 ft-lb. at 6500 rpm.

We can confirm the Kawasaki J300 is equipped with petal-style disc brakes and ABS, which shouldn’t be a surprise for a new model developed for Europe where the technology will soon become mandatory.

As for the name, Kawasaki says the “J” stands for “Jyonetsu”, Japanese for “passion”.

“It was very important that our first foray into the European market for scooters out with a product that inherit the cutting edge design that always accompanies Kawasaki products, and we are very proud to have achieved this premise with the design of the new J300,” says Keishi Fukumoto, J300 design project leader. “The ‘J’ is the initial of ” Jyonetsu ” Japanese for passion. We started this project with the same passion we devote the rest of the Kawasaki product range .”

Kawasaki will reveal full details about the new J300 maxi-scooter at the 2013 EICMA show in Milan in November.

[Source: Kawasaki Spain (Facebook)]

By Dennis Chung