One benefit of having a Honda plant in your own country is that the team there has a REAL understanding of your market; take Thailand for instance. The Honda Thailand factory is producing exactly what the population demands (a large number of big-wheel scooters in the 110 cc-150 cc range).
Last week Honda announced that they will begin sales of a new Cub-type automatic transmission (AT) scooter model, Wave110i AT, next month. This new Wave is based on the last series of Wave110i, which is highly acclaimed for its fuel efficiency, but the new Wave110i AT features a newly implemented CV-Maic transmission. The starting price will be 44,900 baht (about $1400 US), with an annual sales plan of 50,000 units.
We (or Honda America, rather) will also start selling $1,400 Honda scooters when Wyoming and Colorado begin selling 50,000 scooters a year, built in their Fort Collins manufacturing plant.
You can read all about the new, advanced Honda Wave 110i on the Honda Worldwide website.
25. February 2010 at 4:18 pm
Now, the “we” that opened that last paragraph was… Honda…? Or Speculative Steve…? ;)
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25. February 2010 at 4:23 pm
Oh, yeah… I understood it in MY head… but all the words didn’t come out. By “we” I meant Honda in the USA. Maybe I should have said “We’ll be able to buy $1,400 Honda Scooters”… Yeah, that’s better.
26. February 2010 at 1:01 pm
What is your source for the information “We (or Honda America, rather) will also start selling $1,400 Honda scooters when Wyoming and Colorado begin selling 50,000 scooters a year, built in their Fort Collins manufacturing plant.”?
I’m well aware that Asia enjoys high-quality scooters that only cost around $1,400. I’ve been there on vacation and rented them. They’re awesome! The U.S. can’t seem to manage achieving the same level of affordable, quality scooters however. Essentially none of the Asia models are available in the U.S. Ones of similar size by Kymco, SYM, or Honda cost $3,500+.
So I’m fascinated to hear where you discovered that the U.S. will suddenly enjoy the Asia-only models at the same prices…?
26. February 2010 at 2:32 pm
Hey Damon! I apologize for not clarifying. What I meant by that sentence was my facetious equivalent of “when hell freezes over”.
You may already know this, but in America consumers often wonder why “scooters cost so damn much”, especially when they find out how much they cost in other countries… and there are a number of factors involved: The weak US dollar, the cost of homologation, shipping, tax & tariffs (where applicable), the fact that NONE of these vehicles are built in the USA on top of the fact that many Americans consider scooters to be toys or recreational vehicles insure slow sales in the USA, ALMOST to the point of not-being-worth-it.
I’m pretty sure less than 50,000 scooters were sold in the ENTIRE USA last year. I don’t think all the numbers are in for 2009, but historically I see reports of somewhere between 40,000 and 110,000 units in total, depending on the price of gas that year.
So, what I was saying with that smart-assed remark of mine was, that we Americans can expect to buy brand new Honda scooters for less than $1,500 when the US begins to take them seriously… and not just $4.00-a-gallon-of-gas serious, but Asia-serious where Honda (by themselves) sold over 6 MILLION motorbikes (mostly scooters) in 2008 alone (and more in 2007).
The “Wyoming / Colorado” details were only put in place to illustrate the number of scooters sold in a land mass the size of Thailand and now that I’ve had by 9th espresso for the day I see that only works if their populations were multiplied by a factor of 12. BIG difference. Thailand has a population of about 63 Million and WY + CO has a population of less than 6 Million. Even the entire population of the top 50 cities in the USA doesn’t match the number of people in Thailand. Hard to fathom, eh? And I’m no expert in world census data, so I could be TOTALLY mistaken and hoping that an expert will step in to set me straight.
17. March 2010 at 12:25 pm
Totally man. Well said. This new wave looks awesome though! I wish to one day see NY city full of nothing but scooters and motorbikes. Man that would be the day!
27. February 2010 at 7:42 am
I misunderstood that as well. I was sitting there getting all excited about a new 150cc big wheeled scoot in my future.
27. February 2010 at 2:49 pm
Here are the gross sales figures for 2009 and a comparison to 2008:
2008 Totals 2009 Totals Unit Change % Change
Dual Sport 45,250 26,257 -18,993 -42.0%
Off Road 146,779 105,103 -41,676 -28.4%
Street Bikes 611,133 357,691 -253,442 -41.5%
Scooters 76,748 31,451 -45,297 -59.0%
Totals 879,910 520,502 -359,408 -40.8%
2. March 2010 at 4:02 pm
Hey Sporty! Thanks for the info man! You’re like scooter wikipedia!
(Too bad the info hurts so bad though. *snif*)
2. March 2010 at 3:58 pm
Well Steve, I for one, recognize a good smart-assed remark when I see it and I particularly enjoyed this one. It may be important to note however that we have enjoyed colder winters for the last 10 years running. This winter has been particularly cold. Perhaps this is a prelude to hell actually freezing over and we can get ever-so-closer to US manufacture and sales of less expensive scooters! Hey, how about some of those mythological “green” jobs showing up here in Texas! How about a little “stimulus dough” for the manufacture of green transportation. Or is that $$$ limited to the banks who still refuse to lend money to those who need it make the big payoffs in bonuses fo their own CEOs?
2. March 2010 at 4:01 pm
OUCH! Spot-on my friend… SPOT… ON.
12. March 2011 at 11:01 pm
dear sir,so co incident crashed into your forum..
for your info,the honda wave 110i in the picture is not a scooter,it’s a moped with 4 gear,fuel injection.
i always wonder how your country with so high living level,crazy petrol fuel price,in us the asian’s eye,how could u all drive or ride everyday..?
it’s time may be a scooter or moped(so called toys bike) to introduce into your country,everything will be saved at least 70% of what u spend on transport everyday i guess..
in my country,MALAYSIA,similar to Thailand,bike like the honda wave110i only cost us merely USD1500 or less..!!
fuel consumption=50 miles per 1 USD !!!
(I WONDER IF I EXPORT SOME USED BIKE TO YOUR COUNTRY FOR USD 500.00 TO USD800.00,THE SCOOTER OR MOPED STORM WILL SWEEP THE COUNTRY?)
thanks for the sharing of opinion..
10. November 2011 at 5:06 am
MasterSifu.The one and the same. If you could import them past the green-bots at the EPA ,I would buy 5 from you right now. I think the bikes of that size would have a market in our larger cities if we could show the infrastructure was in place for them.