The storied Italian brand of MV Agusta has signed a long-term strategic partnership with Loncin, one of China's manufacturing powerhouses, which will result in a new four-model family of MV Agustas between 350-500cc, as well as some new Voge brand bikes around 800cc.
What's in it for MV? Well, consider this: the entire American motorcycle market buys just under two million bikes a year. Europe, taken as a whole, contributes about 1.6 million sales. That's nothing to sneeze at – until you see what the Asian numbers are like. India alone buys more than 21 million motorcycles a year. China buys 15. Indonesia is buying 6.4 million, Vietnam more like 3.4 million.
Any motorcycle company that focuses entirely on the sports- and leisure-dominant Western markets is missing out on a chance to rack up monster numbers in the cheap transport-focused East. By partnering up with a Chinese manufacturer, MV can trade on its legendary name in much bigger numbers, with much smaller and cheaper bikes.
Loncin, for its part, will not only have a chance to showcase its quality production capabilities, it'll also get access to MV Agusta's design team, which has been churning out achingly gorgeous butt-jewelery pretty much since the company first began. One of Loncin's consumer brands is called Voge, and Loncin wants to have something around the 800cc range to take into the premium segment. MV will do the design work for an entire new family of Voge bikes, sharing some tech along the way.
This news might've raised some eyebrows, but it's only a month since Harley-Davidson announced it was partnering with Qianjiang to make a 338cc hog, and frankly it feels like anything's possible in this topsy-turvy world now.
Source: MV Agusta