Kawasaki VIN decoder

Type in the VIN and the decoder checks it (17 characters, no I, O or Q, a valid check digit), then pulls Kawasaki's record from NHTSA's vPIC database: model year, model, engine displacement, cylinders, fuel, vehicle type and the plant. For road bikes, NHTSA recall campaigns for that model and year appear under the result.

Dirt bikes, ATVs and side-by-sides such as the KX, Brute Force, Teryx and Mule are built for off-road use, so their results can carry vPIC's off-road vehicle warning. That warning is about federal safety certification, not about the VIN being wrong; the ATV VIN decoder page explains it in more detail.

Kawasaki's filing with NHTSA calls positions 1 to 8 the model identifier and lists one for every 2026 road model. In all 68 rows, positions 4 and 5 repeat the first two letters of Kawasaki's model code, position 7 repeats the code's version letter, and position 8 is 1. Every 2026 model code ends in T, the 2026 year letter.

Some 2026 examples from that chart:

The right column is the example layout in Kawasaki's 2026 filing, which leaves the check digit blank.

For the JKA and JKB codes, vPIC's plant table lists these, including two Taiwan plants run by other companies:

Kawasaki listed this 2024 Ninja 7 Hybrid's VIN as the first in one of the VIN ranges in its recall report to NHTSA (recall 24V-680, for an ECU that may shift the transmission to neutral). NHTSA's vPIC database returns this for ML5CXGA16RDA00161:

Here's a real case that shows the decoder's limits. A government auction on GSA Auctions listed a 2020 Kawasaki Mule with the VIN RGSW643A3LB360866. vPIC reads it this way:

• Make: KYMCO (Kwang Yang Motor Co.), because RGS is a KYMCO code, not one of Kawasaki's
• Model year: 1990, with a note that it may be incorrect
• Plant: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
• Positions 4 to 8: unused, because the maker's submission to NHTSA doesn't explain them, so no model comes back

Two things are going on. L in position 10 can mean 1990 or 2020, and the position 7 rule that settles the decade on cars and light trucks doesn't apply to motorcycles or off-road machines, so vPIC picked the earlier year. And the decoder can only name the maker that owns the first three characters. When a result disagrees with the listing, go by the frame stamp and the title, not the listing text.

vPIC has 64 Kawasaki models for 2026, from the Ninja 500, ZX-4R, ZX-6R, ZX-10R and H2 to the Z500, Z900 and Z900RS, Vulcan S, 900 and 1700, Versys 650 and 1100, KLR650, KLX230 and KLX300, KX motocross bikes, the Brute Force and KFX ATVs, and the Mule and Teryx side-by-sides. The all-years list holds 223 names, back to the KZ, GPZ, Ninja 600R, Concours and Bayou.

• Street bikes: on the steering head, the frame tube right behind the handlebars. Federal rules put the certification label, which carries the VIN, as close as practicable to where the steering post meets the handlebars (49 CFR 567.4).
• ATVs, Mules and Teryx: stamped on the frame; the owner's manual shows the spot for your model.
• Paperwork: the title, registration or certificate of origin.

For more on motorcycle VINs in general, see the motorcycle VIN decoder. Selling the bike? CarShots puts your phone photos on a clean backdrop in about 20 seconds each.