Modern Vespa

https://www.rideapart.com/news/557673/piaggio-zongshen-g150s-scooter-engine/

And some people think the demise of the internal combustion engine is upon us. 15hp out of 150cc - that sounds pretty good.

The problem with Zongshen is that it's located in China. They are highly likely to get boycotted due to the Ughyur genocide in the western part of China in the future by most western countries. That's most likely a matter of time. Right now is not the time to be investing in China. OMG, Piaggio what the hell were you thinking? China lost at least 30% of its economy when real estate tanked. I.e. Evergrande and most of the other major property developers in China are in bankruptcy or insolvent. I.e. they were building billions of dollars of apartments that the vast majority of the population can't afford to buy and they won't let foreigners buy. The whole economy in China is massively over leveraged in debt. It's very risky to be investing in China right now. Foreigners get paid last when companies in China go BK. Most foreign companies are leaving China, not investing. China will require a 50-50 arrangement with a local company - Zongshen. Eventually Zongshen or another Chinese company will steal the technology that Piaggio provides and then kick them out, then make a knock off copy and try to export the product as a Chinese product without paying the copyright and/or patent fees. That's just the way it is in China. It will eventually happen. Hopefully Piaggio can make some money before it happens with their investment. The CCP has banned motorcycles from most major cities and freeways in China, so the local market is a tough sell. The local market already has super cheap knock off scooters where they can still sell them. The CCP thinks that motorcycles make the country look poor and they don't want that. Never, mind that most of the population is actually poor with the average Chinese person making about $12K a year. The production from this has to be planned for the export market, probably to the SE Asian area. There is definately better places in SE Asia invest in instead of China. China today is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago. I'm going to be mad if Piaggio loses a ton on money and down the line it affects me. [/quote]

Take a deep breath and read the source
https://chinamotorworld.com/zongshen-has-launched-4-valves-sohc-efi-150cc-water-cooled-scooter-engine-g150s-2/
Then analyze the spin. How much does the title reflect the contents of the linked article? How accurately does that reflect the contents of the source article? How similar is the Op's writing style to that of the author of the articles, Enrico Punsalang, that he/she repeatedly links to? Might be true, maybe stretching it a bit. Could be completely made up. Piaggio is making dollar tree scooters for the chinese market in China and rideable garbage for the indian market in india. Two giant markets where people don't have a lot to spend. Nothing new there. In Vietnam and Italy, they are making the international market stuff. The OP is paid to post this stuff, and a lot of it is ccp wishful thinking that never pans out. What does the author want you to take away from this?

Don't forget that the main Zongshen factory makes engines for multiple big bike brands around the world & has done so for years. Zongshen doesn't need to steal technology. Harley, Suzuki, Yamaha, BMW, Sinnis to name a few are made there. Not just the engines but complete bikes for those brands too. And these are mostly for the world market not just Asia. So if the article is true Piaggio have made a shrewd move. No one's been burned so far.

While on the subject. I'm no lover of the Chinese government or the way it operates. But the way to get change is to trade with them. It means shared interests, convenience & leverage. Disengaging never works in the way one would want it to. Look what happened in Russia when glasnost arrived for a brief decade. The Russian people learned about the west for the first time for decades, we started trading properly. Everything got better. Then it all got hijacked! If folks are going to boycott Chinese goods we will need to give up driving our cars & bikes, stop watching TV & our computers, not buy any smartphones, not buy solar panels and cut out a myriad of other things like clothing, food stuffs & that's just for starters. The Chinese people are a fantastic race. Lovely people, but led by a errrr.. less than perfect government.

Zongshen Power launches the G150S engine

This new single-cylinder 150 will be intended for scooter models, it would have been jointly developed by Zongshen and Piaggio:

https://techprincess.it/piaggio-zongshen-motore-150cc/

The new engine, called the G150S, has an internal structure very similar to the latest engines developed by Yamaha and Honda for their NMax ( and Tricity 155) and PCX models. According to Asian media, this 150 cubic centimeter engine would develop an output of 15.6 hp (11 kW) and torque of 14.5 Nm. It would also have electronic fuel injection and lateral liquid cooling. But it's not. everything. Developed to have the latest innovations, this G150S engine would be designed to be compatible with various technologies such as the Smart Key, silent start or automatic shutdown at traffic lights or in heavy city traffic.

Even mechanically it would be at the top of current technology, using cutting-edge elements such as an integral cylinder head, an eccentric crankshaft, pistons lighter than those proposed so far and an infinity of innovations that will be revealed later, when the two companies will officially present.

As usual, this engine would not be intended for a single model of the Italian company, but we should see it mounted in various models belonging to the Piaggio Group such as Aprilia, Vespa, etc. Its arrival date on the market is scheduled for 2022, so it would be surprising that the next Piaggio scooter was equipped with the new G150S.

I've never used a Chinese liquid-cooled small engine, but I've used several Chinese air-cooled small engines and been quite happy with them. A lot of other stuff around the engines has been utter garbage, or not Chinese in origin, but the engines themselves have been pretty good.

A manufacturer certainly doesn't need a partnership with Piaggio to copy technology and other IP, as evidenced by the existence of all of the "clone" GY6 engines…and Vespa-looking clone scooters…and Royal Alloy branding nonsense, which of course scratches just the tip of the iceberg. And Piaggio has likely implemented ideas already in place in the Honda and Yamaha engines of similar size, as the article points out - so who's copying whom here?

Piaggio of course knows what it's doing and with this partnership gets a piece of the action and access to Zongshen's cheaper manufacturing capabilities.

I'm typing this from my Motorola smart phone, completely Chinese owned. It's a great phone! If I can get a 150cc version of my phone that will be great!!

I think PM Chamberlain would have agreed with you on this. But it was constant economic pressure, among other things, that brought about glasnost and perestroika, not free trade with the West. In realpolitik, the stick has always gotten better results than the carrot. Watch what happens when Evergrande isn't a one-off, and a lot of the new infrastructure washes away every time it rains. That's where the change is going to come from. But cutting off access to markets would absolutely speed up the process.

And I from my Huawei phone and on my wrist I have a Huawei GT Pro smartwatch ...

Yes indeed. But trading with a neighbour who is misbehaving is not necessarily appeasement. The stick is very useful and did help get glasnost to happen but that wasn't the whole story. But look what happened when proper trading started. It brought about changes in Russian behaviour and politics the like of which the modern west had not seen before. Unfortunately, Mr Putin came along.

China is a very different entity and in a totally different position. The stick doesn't work and unless we want a war the way we can influence them is by trade entwined with soft politics. It takes a long time to influence change like this but history has shown it can make big changes over time. Change is and has already been happening in China at all sorts of levels. But we do need to do more than we are currently doing to stamp out the human rights abuses. Most world leaders understand we cannot just stop trading with them. It will cause a world economic collapse affecting all of us. It's actually a very difficult issue to solve unless we want a war. And that's not really an option either.

Is your Huawei phone a 150cc model?

Why I link a lot of articles from Ride Apart.

Contrary to popular thinking I don't work for anybody. I'm a retired former Grumman Machinist, Highway Construction Inspector, Newspaper reporter, blah, blah, blah who's been riding bikes since 1962 and scooters since 2008. I only wish someone was paying me to shill for the Chinese. I could buy a new Kawasaki 650 Retro RS if they did.

I'm not pulling punches on this one. Ride Apart is the ONLY source that includes scooter news that I can find. After all what's to write about. Vespas with new paint? Honda PCX with new body work to look like an ADV? Yamaha not selling 50cc scooters at all and dropping the Vino in 125 and 50cc. The hottest item of late is the new Navi. It could be a game changer or dust collector.

The Chinese are the only ones making the news these days. Benellis are better than they've been in decades and coming in with even newer models, BMW has Loncin building their 400cc and yes, Piaggio and Zongshen are pooling their talent to build a new 150cc engine with 15 horse.

I link these articles to add to the combined knowledge of what's going on in the world and I thought add interest to the site. I'm a Moderator on three Chinese scooter forums and guess what? They're Dead. The flame wars of the last ten years and You Tube have killed them. I don't link Ride Apart articles there because no one is there to read them.

I come here because this site is vibrant, intelligent and well run. Not to make a buck.

It's great you posted about it kz. Thanks, it's interesting.

250 €

But despite what they say as a brand, it is very good, it is a pity that it has been isolated for political reasons; the smartwatch in particular is exceptional in construction (titanium and sapphire crystal) and how it functions.
I say this because it may also be that if Piaggio has the engine built by a company of similar quality, an excellent engine will come out of it.

Yes, you are right. The factory that Piaggio appears to have now tied up with is excellent. They build superb engines & complete bikes. Quality will not be an issue.

Huawei are brilliant phones. They have been very popular over here until Google withdrew their service. But now Huawei have their own system which could be a game changer.

I'd love a 250cc phone!

And I want to say thank you for your contributions and observations.

Don't forget your Huawei hip replacement with built in GPS and Alexa. ("testing, 1, 2, 3")

You might be confused on your first trip to the supermarket when your hip keeps walking you past that thing you thought you wanted and stops in front of something you never knew you needed.