So we get a lot of questions about Kymco here at MRP. I've been involved with Kymco for a long time to say almost 10 years now. I first heard of them in Italy back when I was importing Malaguti Scooters between 2000-2005 to the US. The company was number 15 in sales in Italy at the time and had just become a supplier to Malaguti replacing Yamaha for the 150cc engine category. Simply put they offered the Italian OEM a better price and similar quality on their 150cc engines. Fast Forward 10 years and now Kymco is 3rd in sales having knocked off Yamaha as the 3rd best selling Scooter in Italy. This is unheard of in the kingdom of scooters called Italy.
In any case they are three times the size of the other brands. Taiwan is home to many scooter brands that are popular abroad but in Taiwan only Kymco and SYM seem to sell in their home market. The island's 22 million inhabitants own and operate about 11 million motorized two-wheelers mostly Kymco, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and SYM models. Most of the models Americans know such as Eton, CPI, KPI, and others are for export only and don't really have much market clout on the island.
(KYMCO)has dominates with an average of 35 to 37% percent market share the last few years followed by Yamaha Motor Taiwan Co., a subsidiary of Japan's Yamaha Motor Co., which also has about a 30% percent market share, followed by Sanyang Industry Co. 27 to 27% percent percent market share. This is constantly changing, but followed closely by Honda and other brands. Smaller imported brands like Vespa - Piaggio sell in Taiwan but command less than 1% of the market. Some brands known in the USA are only for export or command less than a 1 to 2% market share in their home country such as Eton, CPI, or PGO. Some of these brands might be selling well in the US, but on a worldwide or Italian scale (how the industry really measures things) they dont have much market share. To understand the sheer size of Kymco see the attached article link.
One thing I will warn about is buying fake Kymco parts and scooters. Over the years I have seen them such as SYMCO, ZYMCO, CYWYNCO, DO NOT BUY THESE. I know some US cheap Chinese Parts importers are selling them, but they will likely not work on an OEM Kymco. Stay away from this stuff. Watch my video to see what I am talking about.
If you get the chance make sure to check out a Kymco at your nearest dealership.
Who are they? What does the Scooter Maven think of the brand? Let's talk about Kymco, KYMCO OEM parts and the future of the company. As an added bonus we have a link on the MRP website to our new article on our tour of the Kymco factory. Take a closer look at sales by clicking on the following article.
www.mrp-speed.com
Check out this new article on the Mavens visit to the Kymco Factory 2009
http://www.martinracingdealer.com/REPAIR%20MANUALS/PRESS/scooter.pdf
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