The Kawasaki Z900 is one of the Japanese manufacturer’s most popular motorcycles in India. Five months after mandatory BS6 emissions norms kicked in, Kawasaki is all set to launch an emissions-compliant model in the third week of September. 

• 2020 Z900 gets new electronic safety assists

• Gains an LED headlamp and a TFT display

• BS6 Z900 likely to offer similar, if not identical performance figures to the BS4 model

The Z900 is powered by a 948cc four-cylinder motor that, on the BS4 model, produced 125hp and 98.6Nm of torque – both were the highest figures in the middle-weight, sport-naked segment. While the 2020 Kawasaki Z900 will retain the 2019 model’s frame, suspension and overall design, there will be big improvements in other areas. Some of these improvement include an LED headlamp, a Bluetooth-compatible TFT display, traction control, four riding modes and two power modes. The bike also comes with new Dunlop Sportmax Roadsport 2 tyres. 

Interestingly a Kawasaki Z900 Special Edition had launched in India in February 2020, which offered all the above-mentioned features. That bike was brought into India in limited numbers at Rs 7.99 lakh* – it cost just Rs 30,000 more than the Z900 that was on sale before that. The really interesting bit is that Kawasaki India says that the Z900 Special Edition was a BS4 motorcycle, but it was clearly the same 2020 model that Kawasaki had shown at EICMA 2019. That bike was Euro 5 compliant, which means the Special Edition should have complied with BS6 norms too, but for some reason, Kawasaki India only homologated it to BS4-spec.

Nevertheless, the official BS6 Kawasaki Z900 will arrive soon and we’re curious to see how Kawasaki India prices it. In December 2019, the company issued a press release saying that the BS6 Z900 would be priced between Rs 8.5 and 9 lakh (ex-showroom). However, Kawasaki India has contradicted its own statements in the past, most recently, with the BS6 Ninja 650. The newly launched and temptingly priced Triumph Street Triple R will also have Kawasaki reconsidering whether it should price the Z900 so high when, effectively, the same bike was sold at Rs 7.99 lakh as a ‘Special Edition’. 

We’ll have the answer soon enough

*Prices, ex-showroom, India.