ZXMOTO will debut its long-awaited rally raid program at the Rallye du Maroc in September before running the 2027 Dakar Rally. Joyride Race Service has been named the official factory team with Tobias Ebster as the lead rider on the ZXMOTO 450 Rally.

After leaving Kove Moto in 2024, its founder Zhang Xue unveiled ZXMOTO at EICMA last November. While getting back to Dakar is a major goal of his, Zhang’s priority was on competing in the Supersport World Championship first. If anything, he proclaimed that he’d like to win a WorldSSP title before focusing on Dakar.

This approach seems to be working quite well so far. Valentin Debise has won six races on the ZXMOTO 820RR-RS and sits second in the riders’ championship. The factory team Evan Bros Racing is also P2 in the team standings, while ZX ranks third among manufacturers.

While pavement racing got the spotlight, the 450 Rally was also revealed at EICMA. It shares very similar anatomy to the Kove 450 Rally since most of the latter’s developers followed Zhang to his new company, but is lighter with different shocks. ZX also has a dirt bike and reportedly wants to expand into MXGP.

Ebster joins ZX after a year with Hero MotoSports. His tenure with the Indian manufacturer began on a strong note when he won a stage and finished second in Rally2 at the 2025 South African Safari Rally, but he has been sidelined since breaking his hand at the Dakar in January. Shlok Ghorpade was signed in June as Hero’s main Rally2 rider.

Joyride Race Service previously leased out KTMs to customers.

Featured image credit: Rocket Visuals, goWMedia