Modern Vespa

https://freedomscoots.com/products/
Has any one heard of them?
Any one have a friend who bought one?

I am looking at there 300 storm is $5000 not including tax title fees
Sounds like it has good parts on it?
There are a lot cheaper than vespa or Piaggio.
There based in the usa in Oklahoma.
My first choice would be the bv400 but my dealer want over 8300 before tax and title.
Any thoughts or advice would be helpful thks

There' isn't enough information to assume "good parts" besides a NGK plug & gates belt
I would assume a chinese build

I think it is safe to say that these scooters are not built in Oklahoma. The company is an importer and marketer of products built elsewhere - probably China. Nothing wrong with that in itself. Genuine Scooters is a well known and generally respected importer and marketer of Asian-built scooters. The question in this case would be the actual quality of these scooters as well as parts supply, warranties, and dealer support. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for.

Genuine scooters are built by PGO in Taiwan, not mainland China. The quality is much better than the typical Chinese machines. Freedom scooters is just another importer of the same old wonky stuff that has been brought over for many years by the container load.

The owner of the company, Chris Riggs, made his fortune selling high performance auto parts. The new 300 and water cooled 150 scooter have been designed in Italy and, like Benelli, are built in China. Chris has a few dealers on board in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida and sells online until he has a network. He's on Facebook both on his own page and heads up the Maxi Scooter of America page. He is accessible in either place and is serious about doing the right thing. He has a 400 in the works coming next year after compliance testing.

i wonder how good the 400cc will be? it cant be anything worse than what honda is doing now. high price and cheep built scooters.
i like all the colors he has to offer it nice to see something different

Actually, Genuine has sold scooters built in Taiwan, mainland China, and India. I agree that their best scooters have been built by PGO in Taiwan.

Yeah, I forgot about the Stella they sold, and I suspected the G400C was built in China, but I don't know. I look forward to some long term ownership reviews on the Freedom scooter. One last point: the Chinese are no different than anyone else as they can build anything in quality from A to F. They could build a bullet proof scooter/bike, and I'm hoping some day they do (if they haven't already done so).

If you are asking the question you are risk adverse. You are not the one to be trying an unknown scooter. If you want a cheaper scooter look at Kymco or Sym or . . . any other suggestions people.

Not sure of the price of a new unit but the Suzuki Burgman 400 is a good bike, and, lower priced used bikes are fairly common. For that matter the Honda Silverwing 600cc bike can be had a really decent price for a used bike.

Oh, yes. There will be a good supply of good quality scooters from China, some day. When this day comes is any bodies guess.

Hi, it's Chris. Appreciate the thread, which tells me we are making waves nationally, which is welcomed news.

I'm a fellow scooter enthusiast, who simply wanted to invest in a segment that most manufacturers seem to be pulling out of.

I have been in international sourcing for 22 years, so hunting & finding quality suppliers is what I've done successfully for decades.

We are currently working with Loncin, a supplier partner to BMW. They make models like the C400GT private label for BMW....and make engines for us.

https://www.bmwgroup-werke.com/berlin/en/unser-werk/internationale-produktion.html

Vespa has moved a TON of production to China & SE Asia, where labor is less costly than Europe.

Their Chinese factory produces 50cc models for the USA.

Nothing wrong with China or SE Asia, it boils down to having independent QC teams in the country that can oversee the factories.

We opened an office in Wuxi, China about 3 years ago.....and we have our team at the factory overseeing each production run.

This is standard practice for any large OEM, anywhere in the world, even in Europe factories.

You get what you pay for....and you can find good & bad quality in every country worldwide.

I'm an open book, just ask, happy to share how things are done in this industry.

My cell is 405-309-9723, I'm not hiding & just happy to be apart of the scooter community as an enthusiast first & foremost

They already exist. You'd be SHOCKED how many scooters are being made for the largest OEM's in China & SE Asia these days.

Honda has moved almost ALL production to China & SE Asia, specifically Thailand which has labor cost about 1/2 of China & avoid the "Trump" instituted tariffs.

China is no longer the focus of most OEM's due to the tariffs. These large scale international conglomerates are setting up shop in SE Asia where they can find even more margin. We are hearing chatter that Mexico is going to be the next scooter manufacturing hot spot, so something to watch.

China now has the largest middle class in the world, it's not the "China" that most of us have been told about our entire lives.

If you go there, it's much more developed & modern than we'd like to think.

G400C is built in Chongqing, China.....which is the motorcycle manufacturing capital of China.

It's a very low end, no frills product. There is WAY better tech there with full digital dash packs, traction control, front & rear ABS, etc.

It uses an entry level engine & features to hit a price point.

100%, PGO is the crown jewel of Genuine's line....and their best products.

Most of their models are now coming out of China & SE Asia...and are price point products with low end engines & tech.

For the 50-150cc market, that is fine.

We don't yet have access to the engine, so I'm not sure. But I have high hopes.

We, like everyone else, are only as good as the engines we can source.

The engine is expected to launch in November/December time frame....and we expect to get the first production models in Q1 2024 stateside.

I'm told the engine unveil will be at EICMA in Milan in November, which we will attend.

I'll give you my honest feedback once available.

The manufacturer is extremely well respected globally, they are a Tier 1 OEM & I'm excited to get our first batch of motors.

I'm serious about building a high quality product & we continue to improve with every production run, as we gather feedback from our dealer & consumer network.

I have been incredibly successful in the automotive performance/racing world, as a performance parts manufacturer & I'm applying this know-how to the Freedom brand.

For a 2-year brand, we are growing fast!

Freedom Scooters, thank you for posting. It is refreshing to see that there is someone that actually communicates. I do want to apologize for the " just another importer of the same old wonky stuff...." But I have worked on the side on motorcycles/scooters for many years and have seen enough of the absolute junk imported in the country. Often, unfortunately, people bring me their scooters when the warranty is over and I can only tell them it is not worth the time and money to fix them. I have boxes of CDIs and carbs, but when the crank goes because a wonky bearing, it is only good for the metal recycler. There is one particular scooter shop I go to for parts in Charlotte, NC and they have a mountain of trashed scooters hidden behind their shop. Not a good sign for investing in one. So, I'm thinking you are going to have a tough road here to build the business with the mind set of the typical scooter from overseas. But I wish you all the luck in the world and hope you put up some videos on various sites to keep us all informed.

No, it's a very fair criticism & is a MAJOR issue globally.

I started with ZNEN carbureted 49 & 150cc models, because this was all I could access 3 years ago......

ZNEN has many distributors in the USA, the biggest being ScootStar (Lance Powersports)....and Wolf Brand Scooters.

No major OEM would even give me the courtesy of a conversation when we first got started. I personally phoned Sym, Kymco & PGO in Taiwan, with the help of my Mandarin speaking staff.

It wasn't until we had proved ourselves for about a year....that the big OEM's finally agreed to initial talks.

I'm sure they see TONS of fly by night operations....and don't want to waste their time with international tire kickers, I get it.

We are just forming major OEM relationships, which will bare fruit in the years to come. But I'm keenly aware we are still in our infancy.

With that said, our new 2024 150XH model is incredible & our highest quality model to date. We have class leading tech, even rivaling the Japanese on this model.

https://freedomscoots.com/storm-150xh/

It's a good hint at our future direction as a brand, leading the way in technology & features for the price point. ($3999 MSRP)

ya might want to rephrase that. maybe remove 'like to'?

CFMoto is a Chinese manufacturer that is producing good quality scooter, atv and side by sides to the US after being a long term supplier of parts for Honda. Then parts for their Helix clones are interchangeable with the Honda original.

It isn't that China can't make good high quality bikes more that when you get to that quality the cost is more than most people are willing to pay for Chinese "junk". As the old saying goes you can have fast, cheap or good, pick any two. What is typical brought to the US are cheap and fast to get.

An importer who stands over the production enforcing quality control is essential whether that production facility is in the US, Europe or Asia. Personally I prefer Asian scooters made in Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand or pretty much any place except China. Not because of the quality as much as diversity of production locations if I can't find what I want made in the US or Europe. I'd take Mexico or Latin America over Asia as well for similar reasons.

It will take some time in the market and commitment to quality plus post sales service for Freedom Scooters to prove themselves. Genuine has become quite a respectable importer of of scooters because of it demonstrated those qualities. SYM had to overcome issues with its US distribution and post sales service but is recovering from those issues. Lance really has to struggle after problems with their scooters and post sales service but have been removing since switch to SYM to produce some of their models so reliability has improved considerably. Kymco did better at post sales service and has earned a reputation for reliability though is still better known for their at/Ute/side by sides than their scooters in the US.

I wish Freedom Scooters the best in bringing more choices to the US and look forward to seeing another well supported option in the US market.

In fairness, all scooters come from overseas if you are an American rider - good, bad, and indifferent. The challenge has been, and remains, to identify the good and look for the bargains. I own 3 scooters. All of them are good, and two of them were bargains - but the one which was not a bargain was, and is, the best.

Just about everyone who sticks their own brand on a container of Chinese scooters now comes up with a similar schtick about Gates belts, NGK Spark plugs, Motobatts, etc. Because $30 worth of names you heard of goes a long way toward overcoming buyer trepidation.
Ask to see a copy of the warranty paperwork and try to find out how the dealers are reimbursed for warranty work. If they have a list of repairs, and a dollar amount they credit the parts account, like $25 to replace a 50cc cylinder and piston (actual dollar amount paid by one well known hawker of "better" Chinese scooters), and their retail prices on parts are insanely high, it doesn't matter what their warranty says, because nobody wants to work on your bike once it leaves the shop. If they say they don't have a lot of warranty claims, so the warranty hasn't been an issue, run. Any legitimate powersports distributor has a flat rate time book for warranty repairs and honors the dealer their own hourly shop rate for that flat rate. They don't actually pay them that, but they do credit the dealer's parts account for warranty work done at flat rate times the rate the dealer charges. If they also allow the dealer to use that warranty reimbursement as a discount on new bikes, it usually means they don't have any parts.
If they are using LED light fixtures, find out if they have them in stock, both front and rear. If they don't now, they won't when you need one either. After they've been around a while, many of these companies start losing dealers. Call one and ask why they don't sell it anymore. Usually it's because the quality isn't there, and the distributor wouldn't pay to fix anything.
Now think about paying every month on a broken scooter sitting in your garage that nobody wants to work on.
Paying a grand more for a used Yamaha XMax with 15000 miles on it starts looking more and more like a better deal.

Maybe the question should be "which parts of the scooter" to which the answer is of course "the stickers"

There are a lot of Chinese companies that rent space in Italy and claim it's a design studio. The only part of it that's Italian is the name of the street. If you find the same design being sold by different Chinese companies on Alibaba, the Italian designer might not know he/she designed it.

nope

Likely the first Morini 400 cc engine that keeps showing up in Chinese scooters and advs. It was state of the art 25 years ago. Or maybe Yamaha sold them the tooling for the old Majesty 400. Japanese companies like giving the Chinese their old stuff, because then they don't have to manufacture spare parts anymore.

Though you might think this is a great deal that I won't find anywhere else, there are at least four different companies actively selling the Storm-S 300, and calling it the Storm-S 300. Check out the Amigo brand Storm-S 300or the Wottan Storm-S 300. But if you don't like that name, check out the Taro T-11 or the Taro T 300.

When you say Honda is selling cheap built scooters for high prices and, miracle of miracles, the paid promoter of all things Chinese, and the distributor of this brand both find and fill the thread with positive information within a day, it really does appear that you came onto this site to hawk the New Freedom Maxi.

Fugly.

nope

"paid promoter of all things Chinese"

Not hardly. I am retired with nothing but time to search the Internet for information. The reps at the SSR booth at Americade told my buddy, with me not around, how surprised they were to meet someone who knew so much about Chinese scooters and bikes.

If I'm being paid I would like to know by who. Go ahead, tell me.

Or is this just a ploy to get me to blow my cool and get banned.

I don't like to see people being misled into purchasing this stuff. The quality isn't on par with what the Japanese or Taiwanese manufacture, and it is disingenuous to try and sell it as a less expensive version of the same thing.

Would your decision to purchase the product change if you find out you have no idea who really makes it, there are a lot of companies out of China selling the same scooter under different names, and for about the cost of six of them, you can get a container of 16 on Alibaba and call them whatever you want? You can't do that with Honda, Yamaha, Kymco, Vespa or PGO, brands the companies selling these things always tell you are too expensive and about the same quality as what they are selling.

I know a good way to find out if they really do "have class leading tech, even rivaling the Japanese." 2025 Scooter Cannonball Run.

nope

nope

KZ, I always like seeing your posts because they are unusually well curated, ie you have a good filter for stuff that this particular MV member is interested in. Keep it up please.

But, Vendors showing up like this and bashing other brands... heck, we can do that ourselves!

nope

What Vespa model is made in China and what market is it sold in?

There was another company that advertised brand name battery, belt, etc, on a chinese moped, and over time they started to notice that the manufacturer wasn't putting those things on any more, even though they were still paying for them.
The private Maxi Scooter Owners of America page on Facebook and https://gotscoots.com/review-freedom-storm-s-300cc-maxi-scooter/ seem to be designed to drive traffic and lend credibility to this particular brand.
Got Scoots not only posts reviews of Freedom Scooters online, which Freedom Scooters then links to on social media, they also apparently sell them out of a house in Oklahoma.

This is the part of the unbiased review that made me laugh the most.
"With an MSRP of $4,999, GPS verified top speed of 85 MPH, it is more cost-effective than Yamaha Xmax ($5,799), .... etc."

To put it into perspective, the (Your Name Here) S-300 is only $800 less than an Xmax.

There's a challenge, right there. Team Freedom?

I've thought of having a Chinese 150 drop shipped to the start, taking it out of the crate, and seeing how far it would get.

I'd hazard a guess that only about 1/3 of my Vietnamese made Vespa comes from Italy. The rest from China, India, Vietnam, Taiwan, etc in both piaggio factories and subcontracted.

It's not really fair. Since they can design their own scooters they could just get one made that is 279.9cc with a 15 gallon tank and built in catheter.

All that ruminating about Chinese motorcycles and scooters being somehow sub-par, sounds much like crazy talk. You could also call it sino-phobic if you please.

China exports millions of bikes a year, some at the cheap end of things, some top quality. They have the capacity and know-how to produce for any market segment. To dismiss something because of the geographical origin is (very) lame.