The Economic Times reminds us that the Kinetic/Italjet deal is certainly not the first collaboration between Italian and Indian corporations. As we all know LML, Bajaj, SIL and others have made Italian scooters in the past, and just as Italy helped fuel India’s original manufacturing boom, a new wave of Italian cooperation is fueling the current Indian boom.
Continue reading “India and Italy, true love always”
Category: Scooter News
Vespa Twins
Italian twin brothers Jack and Cespu decided to ride their Vespas around Australia to celebrate their 30th birthday. For some reason, though, they went in opposite directions. Thanks for the link, Ryan.
Oldham’s Mod Mayor
Vintage Lambretta rider and ex-Mod Bernard Judge was named mayor of Oldham, England this week. Judge, who is also a huge Motown and soul music fan says, “Music has the power to change things,” and is already being called “The Musical Mayor.” An old photo of Judge in his mod days adorns an album by L.A. band The Jamie Lamb Quartet.
“Tuk to the Road” underway
Jo and Ants have officially hit the road, starting their international tuk-tuk adventure. Best of luck, girls! Don’t forget to write!
Warburg Pincus to LML’s rescue?
Moneycontrol.com reports venture capitalists Warburg Pincus plan to purchase at least 14% of LML. The deal would generate enough cash to cover about half LML’s immediate financial needs. LML will continue to seek additional investors.
What’s going on with Italjet?
Since our report last night about the return of the Velocifero, in which we reported that ItaljetUSA.com was going through a domain name transfer, several other long-dormant Italjet sites, all working last night (Italjet.com, Italjet.it, and Australian importer ItalScooter), have also been replaced with domain transfer announcements. Is Italjet gearing up to market the Kinetic-manufactured scooters internationally? Will the Kinetic Italiano scooters bear an “Italjet” badge? Who will be the U.S. importer? Will they get it right this time?
LML new partner?
More rumors are developing about a new LML partner, but nothing substantive yet.
Velocifero will return to US
Kinetic Engineering announced today that the Velocifero, the second in its line of license-built Italjet scooters, will debut soon. What comes as a fairly huge surprise is that the Kinetic Velocifero will be “exclusively manufactured for exports to (the) U.S.” ItaljetUSA has been dormant for a few years, and it’s unclear who’s running the show. The italjetusa.com site appears to be changing hands (or at least hosts), so watch it closely for more info. (a “whois” search revealed nothing). Kinetic chairman Arun Firodia was quoted in a release as saying “We plan to export 20,000-30,000 scooters in a year. Each vehicle’s cost is around $500-$600.” (that’s their cost, not yours, settle down)
Can Kinetic sell up to three times as many scooters in the U.S. as Vespa? Can they do it with a 50cc Indian-manufactured scooter that debuted here more than ten years ago? The Velocifero design was highly regarded when it came out, and aesthetically it holds up well. Quality was respectable, but supply of vehicles and parts,–and service support–was dismal. Italjet prices were comparable to similar Vespas and Aprilias. Both Italjet and ItaljetUSA seemed dormant by early 2003 (the Italian site is frozen in time in early 2002–by which time the Velocifero had been discontinued), but the Italjet announced the Kinetic deal late in 2004. If Italjet USA hopes to sell that many scooters, they’ll need all cylinders firing: advertising, sales, service, parts, quality, and a price lower than the $3200 they were asking in 2000. Adding the Dragster to the U.S. lineup sure wouldn’t hurt, either.
This review of a prototype Kinetic Velocifero indicates that it maintains the look and steel body of the Italian version (a 2000 Italjet model is pictured above), but calls the 50cc 2-stroke engine “hopelessly underpowered.” The Velocifero, along with the other six scooters in the “Italiano” family, is to be manufactured at its Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh. The first of these models, the Blaze, was released in India a couple months ago, to a good amount of fanfare, and is selling about 10,000 units a month. In a world full of respected brands selling their names to Asian companies, this may be one of the few cases where the final product earns more respect than the original.
LML labor unrest escalates again
As 2500 locked-out LML employees tried to collect their long-disputed temporary checks today, they discovered that LML had terminated 12 employees active in the union, including union president Jai Prakash Pandey and general secretary Suresh Singh. In the ensuing chaos, the enraged and chanting employees did not collect their checks, and union officials, including Pandey, were refused permission to enter the factory to meet with management. Two labor inspectors were present as specified by the original agreement, but were apparently unable to quell the masses or mediate any discussion. As we suggested last week, if you have your heart set on a Genuine Stella, don’t wait for the next batch to come in.
Scooter squirter sent to prison
This will be hilarious to Cy and Rob and probably no one else. Have a good weekend, and if you’re anywhere near Chicago, I’ll see you at Galewood.
Les Nessman Scooter Crash
Chad comes through for us again: Les Nessman’s scooter crash from WKRP in Cincinnati. They don’t show the crash (that would have been expensive to shoot), but Les vividly describes it. I think another episode shows him riding over one of Cincinnati’s many bridges on a Vespa, maybe that will turn up someday.
Ban Hock Hin
Singapore scooter “fleet manager” Ban Hock Hin Co. manufactures some pretty interesting scooter conversions for Asian businesses. I thought this was an LML Porta-Potty but alas, it’s not. I’ve got no doubt they could make a few dozen toilets on wheels for you.
LML lockout continues, future uncertain
Indian scooter manufacturer Lohia Machines Ltd (LML) continues to fight financial and labor woes, as a lockout starting May 7–following strikes and protests–continues amid complaints from the workers’ union that interim payments are not being distributed properly. (It also appears they’ve blown off their web hosting bill). It’s unclear if LML has produced any scooters at all since the beginning of the year. While the Indian business press has frequently reported on potential investors and buyers, nothing has come of these rumors to date.
With demand for small motorcycles and modern automatic scooters on the rise (in India and worldwide), the Honda Eterno, Bajaj Chetak, and LML Star together accounted for only 16% of Indian scooter production in 2006, including 95,000 Eternos, and a combined 70,000 Stars and Chetaks. The Chetak presumably outsold the Star in the Indian market, so LML could certainly benefit from the Chetak’s recent demise (not to mention the demise of the Vespa PX150). Another sales boost comes from the hot, but relatively small, market for the Stella and Belladonna (both LML-manufactured variations of the Star) in the USA and New Zealand, respectively.
As it stands, most US Stella dealers are running very low on stock, and Genuine’s large backorder is–at best–months away (LML surely has domestic obligations, and Belgian, British, and other international dealers are promising a 2006 model). Sadly, it may never come, unfortunate considering US demand has never been higher. Genuine’s deal with PGO (manufacturers of their Buddy 50, 125, and Black Kat, along with other models likely to be announced soon) should reduce the shock on Genuine, their dealers, and scooterists, and Belladonna has introduced a Vino knockoff to their lineup. But those with their hearts set on a Stella would be wise to act fast and settle for whatever color they can get (some colors appear to be sold out nationwide), or place an order for what, if it comes, will likely be the last batch of metal-bodied 2-stroke geared scooters to ever see American soil.
“You can probably see that we’re pretty tough”
Another of Chicago’s greatest moments in televised scooter crashes: Wild Chicago’s segment on DeathScoot 2000 (Slaughterhouse VI), YouTubed for your pleasure, just this minute, by Chad. Ignoring the fact that every voiceover describes the exact opposite of what is being pictured, it’s still a classic. Goodtimes!
“Tracy! are you OK?”
I heard about this when it happened a couple years ago, and never thought I’d get the chance to see it, but thanks to the dual magic of Tivo and Youtube, here it is: With mere seconds of instruction and an unbuckled half-helmet, WLS Channel 7 meteorologist Tracy Butler crashes a Vespa, during a PR piece with Vespa of Chicago’s Sam Tomaino. God bless you, Vespaway. Now if only I could find Les Nessman’s Vespa crash on WKRP…