At the risk of raising all the old antagonisms, I have received a communication from the somewhat eccentric, but very resilient, PRC EV Motor scooter manufacturer, Mountain Chen.
Despite early trading difficulties and a pretty quirky approach to complaints, he has persisted and now claims that his company, CCIB, is officially recognised as the largest electric motorcycle manufacturer in the PRC. http://v.xmnn.cn/index.php/video/index/52290
Most new industries have a number of eccentrics in the pioneer phase. Mountain Chen seems to be one of these characters. Often they fail. The history of most innovative technology is littered with failed promoters, inventors, hopeful visionaries. Also included are a fair number of confidence tricksters, disgruntled fanatics, and bad businessmen.
So what to make of Mountain Chen?
Well he's still here, and still producing an increasing number of electric motor-cycles. So I suppose congratulations are in order, and a certain amount of kudos for persisting where other better funded, better educated, more advantaged, enterprises failed. (Vectrix etc..)
There is no doubt that he has made his fair share of mistakes, and misunderstandings. Most of these seem to have originated from his lack of knowledge of western market expectations. Certainly his responses could have done with a lot more PR, but his dis-tractors also lacked perspective, objectivity, and sophistication when dealing with small PRC based concerns.
I hope that as Mountain Chen becomes more experienced and established his professional skills will also grow. This will be essential if he is to fulfil his ambition to take his company public.
His new business relationship with the ROC, (Taiwan), will be very helpful in acclimatising Mountain Chen to western expectations and provide him with very valuable expert advice and experience.
In the meantime, I wish him well and shall observe his progress with interest.
That'll only last until Zongshen gets into the game? Maybe? Whaddaya think?
- David Herron, The Long Tail Pipe, davidherron.com, 7gen.com, What is Reiki
Difficult to access, but very probable. After all, had Vectrix etc succeeded as a volume manufacturers, it would not have been surprising to see BMW, Honda, Yamaha, etc enter the market segment.
Perhaps Mountain Chen is anticipates if he can gain enough market share, Zongshen may buy him out!
My real interest is in the speed with which even relatively unsophisticated PRC manufacturers,(many of whom are ex-farmers) are learning and adapting to world trade. The comparison between the US of the early 1900's, and the PRC is remarkable.
marcopolo
that wont happen until making electric bikes is a profitable as making petrol bikes.
markets where you might make $500/bike and sell 500 in a year tend to get ignored by most manufacturers.
I have been playing around with one of Mountains 5000W models (thunder).
with a bigger controller it has really good acceleration below 70kmh.
For splitting in traffic its actually preferable to my own vectrix.
It is a shame the guy whos doing the importing is making the same mistakes everyone does (after I already warned him)
like paying more for a warranty.....
There have been significant improvements.
the hall sensors in motors are the usual cause of failure, so mountain had two sets put in.
the new speedos are digital (they use the same hall sensors in the motor to determine speed).
In normal chinese fashion, the bikes are simple and parts easily available.
when the original controller failed (it was a prototype) I just ordered a kelly.
Matt
Daily Ride:
2007 Vectrix, modified with 42 x Thundersky 60Ah in July 2010. Done 194'000km
Yes, that was a problem with Vectrix, too many specially made parts. It made Vectrix difficult to service and very difficult to modify.
marcopolo