CFMOTO: Who are they?
Times are changing faster than any of us ever thought possible, even a matter of years ago. AI, robots, globalisation – where, how and who makes the products we use is changing. And while the source of China has historically equalled low-cost and often questionable quality, there are big changes afoot there, too. So, who are CFMOTO and how did they seemingly come from nowhere to produce a 450cc, four-stroke parallel-twin adventure bike which has got all those who enjoy getting a bit dirty all excited?
In fact, CFMOTO is 35 years old, it currently employs over 6000 people and has seen a meteoric rise in the past decade or so. With a well-publicised joint venture with KTM and a more recent one with Yamaha, CFMOTO is on its way to becoming a global force in the motorcycle market.
Entering the HQ of motorcycle, ATV, UTV and scooter giant CFMOTO and, I could very well have been walking in the foyer of Google, Meta or any other global giant. The building is only six years old, and smart, young staff members are hanging out at the Starbucks located in the building’s open-plan entrance, having informal meetings over an iced coffee.
CFMOTO’s product is displayed around the area, with the bright and vibrant clothing a requirement for the new, younger social classes who no longer ride old-fashioned scooters simply for transport, with the fashion everywhere you look on the streets a long way transformed from the historically reserved China.
Speaking later with one of the CFMOTO employees, he explained how the government are now actively encouraging the younger population to become well-educated and strive to become successful, with grants for housing and learning offered to students along with incentives to move to Hangzhou, which is fast becoming the Silicon Valley of the east.
The town is clean, the buildings are modern, and some of the biggest players are all located here, showing exactly how big CFMOTO is, as their footprint in Hangzhou is massive. Their success has been partly due to this new philosophy of encouraging youth to bring their fresh ideas into the company and giving them the freedom to come up with new designs and solutions. It’s certainly an example that many other large companies that struggle to innovate and react to changing trends could learn from.
The CFMOTO factory
My invite was to tag along with a dealer trip organised by the NZ distributor of CFMOTO. With the brand has been making big moves in the ATV and side-by-side market for quite a while, speaking to the dealers I was travelling with, it’s their decent quality and performance combined with an attractive price point which has made their market share balloon in recent years. So unsurprisingly most of the dealers were traditional farm dealers.
Yet, with the release of the 450MT and other good sellers in the road market, like the 450SR, CFMOTO is now making waves on the road. New dealerships are being signed up all the time as the brand’s popularity continues to grow, and there are now 39 CFMOTO dealers in NZ. In a market that is seeing declining sales due to the poor NZ economy at present, CFMOTO appears to be bucking the trend.
With 4000+ dealers across the globe, there are production facilities in China, Thailand and South America and R&D centres in Europe, China and the U.S.A, showing CFMOTO are setting themselves up to be a global player and it’s certainly a brand that you’ll be hearing about more regularly in the coming months and years.
The Hangzhou plant is seriously impressive and covers the engine and frame manufacturing, plus the assembly of vehicles from 110cc to 1250cc in state-of-the-art facilities helped in no small part by the joint venture with KTM.
Touring through the factory with the team of dealers, all were thoroughly impressed with the modern production process, which included robotics and plenty of other modern practices. For the manufacture of KTM’s 790cc powerplant, CFMOTO built an entirely new manufacturing facility dedicated to the parallel-twin powerplant that sees KTM and CFMOTO models featuring the same motor coming off the end of the production line. For KTM, that’s the 790 Adventure and Duke models, while for CFMOTO, it’s their current adventure tourer model, the 800MT.
The Wave Is Coming
With CFMOTO riding a wave of popularity thanks to the 450MT, they aren’t planning to let the momentum go to waste. And there’s some exciting new product on the way, which will undoubtedly be popular not only in NZ but also around the globe.
The farm dealers were excited to see new side-by-side products that not only filled gaps in the current range but also featured improved features, build quality, and technology. And all acknowledged that CFMOTO listens to feedback from the people at the coalface and quickly react to make changes and improvements to the product.
Part of the factory tour saw the team of Kiwis being led out to the back of the facility, where we were faced with the massively oppressive heat but, more excitingly, a fleet of new models to sample on CFMOTO’s purpose-built testing facility. Yep, they don’t do anything by halves, it seems.
Something exciting
And while the rest of the contingent made a beeline for the off-roaders, it was the exciting-looking road bikes that I was keen to sample, with a new 500cc four-cylinder 500SR and 675cc three-cylinder 675SR-R sitting alongside some of CFMOTO’s other road offerings as well as a sample of electric models. (An exclusive review of these is coming up on BRM shortly, so keep your eyes peeled on our Instagram and Facebook!)
Yet, my introduction to new models didn’t stop there, and after being snuck away from the dealer conference and led off through the gargantuan building, past the company gym and into the R&D department, I can confirm that there’s some other tremendously exciting road/adventure product on the horizon, although I was unfortunately once again banned from taking any photos.
What do CFMOTO dealers say?
After a day of being immersed in CFMOTO and experiencing the changing culture and the way the company is evolving, it was pretty exciting, and it’s easy to see why a trip like this will have the dealers who attended buzzing. The dealers I spoke with throughout the trip all reported they were now having customers coming in and actually asking for a CFMoto, with the reliability, features, and price point making them a popular choice for farmers. And I’m betting there aren’t many Chinese brands which have managed to achieve that.
The road scene is obviously now a major focus for CFMOTO, and while the 450MT has firmly positioned the Chinese manufacturer as a serious contender, the 800MT adventure tourer is arguably even more impressive. With the 790cc powerplant offering plenty of character and performance from the KTM connection, the rest of the bike really shines, especially the technology, which includes radar assistance, mapping, switchable ABS and a quickshifter, all for under $18k.
However you feel about China, there’s no denying that manufacturers like CFMOTO are producing products which appear to be able to hold their own against the established competition. And I’m sure it won’t take long before the stigma of ‘Made in China’ is a thing of the past. That might be too much of an attitude change for the older motorcyclists among us, but I bet the new generation won’t think twice.
Images by Paul/CFMOTO
