Shipping Updates??

[Big Bird]

Originally Posted by krat

My personal scope of wonderment covers the fact that we can not get the China bikes we crave, but there is a never ending supply of Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Benelli, BMW and Harley Davidson motorcycles coming out of the factories next door to the ones that make ours! In some cases they come out of the same buildings.

There is also a shortage of Japanese bikes right now, dealers were jacking up prices of Honda Groms for one thing, now they are all sold out. My buddy is having a hard time finding a 250cc dual sport Honda or kawasaki at the moment.

I also know that in GB the tremendous market for 125cc Chinese motorbikes and scooters is fully stocked, the dealers have plenty.
There is plenty of 125cc chinese motorcycles being delivered every day. I see them as I am involved with multiple groups on FB with people taking delivery all the time.

This is a move to drive up demand so they can increase prices to "just cheap enough to compete" with the major brands being built in the building next door.

Our 250cc dual sport bikes will likely come back at a standard $2500 and up rather than the present $1500 and up, or the prices will go up soon afterward.

There is still plenty of china 250cc dualsports available right now. Some dealers you have to put a deposit and wait a few weeks because demand is high. For some reason people are hung up on Tao Tao. You could go with another brand and be riding months ago.

[Big Bird]

PSM has a couple tao tao's in stock. Maybe they are starting to trickle in.

Black Rhino
https://www.powersportsmax.com/produ...ducts_id/18023

Orange DBX1
https://www.powersportsmax.com/produ...ducts_id/21698

[crabjoe]

Originally Posted by Big Bird

PSM has a couple tao tao's in stock. Maybe they are starting to trickle in.

Black Rhino
https://www.powersportsmax.com/produ...ducts_id/18023

Orange DBX1
https://www.powersportsmax.com/produ...ducts_id/21698

Just clicked both links and they're out of stock now. LOL.. I wonder how many they had?

I just got a response from Q9 about my Bull 200 order.. they're saying 3-5 weeks from now.. which is in line with what I heard back in late August.. which was Sept or Oct time frame...

I did ask if this time frame was a guess. They replied this was the latest info from their supplier.

[JakeD]

I wouldn’t hold your breath.... I was told 3 weeks ago that it would be mid September... after disappointing my son for the third time, I asked if it would be safer just to tell him the end of October, and they said there was a pretty good chance it would get here before then.... but there was a pretty good chance it would get here in July...

[JakeD]

Crossing fingers for Christmas delivery... that would only be a 6 month wait... I called today to ask for an update... I am cool with we really aren’t sure yet... but they don’t even have something that says, we have 500 orders for your model and you are 150th in line. Seems weird that they wouldn’t at least be keeping track of it that way... Well, eventually I will be making a post for help on setting things up... argh.

[idahojason]

When and what did you order? I ordered a 200 Bull ATV from Q9 June 8, they just keep saying probably end of this month, every month.

[JakeD]

TBR7 and a DB27.... TX-powersports has them in stock, supposedly, so evidently they aren’t all pulling from the same warehouse. Or they are and allotments are tight... I am confident that I could get them squared away with a system that would at least give folks a better idea of when things might come in... but I am sticking with them for now. I am sure they are overwhelmed, but running the company the way it always has been run without innovating, is a not a great way to get long term business.

[crabjoe]

Originally Posted by idahojason

When and what did you order? I ordered a 200 Bull ATV from Q9 June 8, they just keep saying probably end of this month, every month.

I've got the same on order from Q9 since May 6th.

I have a feeling that they, as in all these dealers of Chinese products, don't have as many orders as they make it seem. With not much to sell, they're probably running on a skeleton crew to keep their doors open.

I hope for ours and their sake that the Chinese start shipping some products to their US distributors. The other option I see is for some of these dealers banding together to import them directly. I say this because when I check Alibaba, all these products are for sale, but to get a decent price, you have to order in fairly large quantities. Way more than what any one dealer might sell in a year of a given model.

[JakeD]

I wonder how large an order you would have to put together to get a good price? Seems to me that if you scoured all the Facebook pages and all the forums, you could get enough to pack a couple containers...

Is that your suspicion? That they are holding orders until they actually have enough to place one for an entire load of a single bike type to get the prices down? I should have some of my Taiwanese friends call and ask what is going on..

[crabjoe]

Originally Posted by JakeD

I wonder how large an order you would have to put together to get a good price? Seems to me that if you scoured all the Facebook pages and all the forums, you could get enough to pack a couple containers...

Is that your suspicion? That they are holding orders until they actually have enough to place one for an entire load of a single bike type to get the prices down? I should have some of my Taiwanese friends call and ask what is going on..

I don't think they're holding orders. I think for whatever reason, Tao USA just isn't importing them.

Here's the link on Alibaba for Tao Bull 200s that they'll sell to anyone. This is actually better equipped than what Tao USA sell us.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...1bfa7407hq2W4Y

If you looked, you'll see the sale price is $899 if you over more than 100 of them, negotiable if you order over a 1000 units and $2599 for 100 or less.

Being that Tao USA buys huge numbers of Tao vehicles and the Bull 200 sold here isn't was well equipped, they probably way less than $899 a piece.

A theory I read was that the reason for the shortage is because the Chinese are trying to raise prices. They're creating a artificial shortage to get the pricing to rise, then will eventually start shipping normal amounts again.

Who really knows what's going on other than the Chinese and their importers? And as far as I can tell, both are tight lipped.

BTW, they're still importing a bunch of helmets... and for some reason, recently started importing electric powered scoots and atvs... It's weird... I wish I spoke Chinese because I'd call them and hassle the hell out of them till I got some answers.

[crabjoe]

Back in early September I asked Q9 when I might get the Bull 200 I ordered back in May. At that time, they said 3-5 weeks, which would have put by the end of this month. I emailed them the other day for a status and this time, it's now by late Nov or early December..

I feel like they've been lying to me all year, and it's worse now because when I asked them over a month ago, I asked if the 3-5 weeks was a guess or if they're being told this. At that time, they said it was info from their supplier.

What kind of supplier.. which I would say is Tao USA would lie to their retailers month after month? I really with these retailers would just say "We don't know because we're not getting any info." if they're just making delivery dates up. If they're truly getting bad info from Tao USA, I wish they would post it to prove it's Tao USA playing games. Because I know someone knows what's happening because this is no way to run a business.

BTW, Tao Canada did just get a shipment of toys that landed on 10/15 in Vancouver. As did GVA Brands. It seems nothing has landed in the US for about a year for Tao. And based on the ATM-50 scooter going out of stock then being available again, I'm thinking everything is being shipped to Tao Canada for North American distribution. Because if that wasn't happening, they'd be no Tao 50cc scooters available, but they are again.. although at a price that's about $200 more than it was back in the Spring.

[JakeD]

Yeah, I noticed that Tao isn’t managing to send out much of anything. Seems strange to send them to Canada and then to the US... someone is getting stuff from Tao, because TX powersports seems to have stuff... I’m just not sure what company name they are shipping from or to... seems odd that a company that has shipped thousands of containers and a company that has received thousands would just stop... unless they are starting new groups to ship from to stay under the radar...

[JakeD]

I wonder if this has Impacted things, or if they started up under another importer/exporter name? https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...otaousainc.pdf

[crabjoe]

Originally Posted by JakeD

I wonder if this has Impacted things, or if they started up under another importer/exporter name? https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...otaousainc.pdf

With Trump hitting China with tariff increases, I thought that might have been the reason why there were no imports directly to the US. But it seems more likely what you found is the real culprit.

Based on import info I could find, the last vehicles brought into the US was in 11/2018. And that was under the importer name of Tao Motor Inc. Under the importer name of TaoTao USA, nothings been shipped in since 2/2018.

Below is the last 3 shipments to Tao Motor Inc, 4575 EDISON AVE CHINO CA 91710.




Here's the last 3 for Taotao USA, 2425 CAMP AVE SUITE 100, CARROLLTON TX 75006, USA

[Deckard_Cain]

Originally Posted by JakeD

I wonder if this has Impacted things, or if they started up under another importer/exporter name? https://www.epa.gov/sites/production...otaousainc.pdf

Well I think this is a BINGO right here. Court doc dated March 2020.

So two things are going to happen now, either Taotao China/Jinyun/Tao USA are going to redesign or purchase compliant catalytic convertors (increasing the cost of the bike) and then have to either submit a new COC application, or make sure the new convertors meet the original specification...

OR ... TaoTao stops production of those models forever.

But given the 100,000+ numbers of highway use motorcycles (street legal) stated in the court doc, I'm guessing this was happening on ALL of their street legal machines and that they won't abandon that product or market completely.

What is sad is that so many owners of Taotao street legal bikes rip the exhaust off right away anyhow, and install one with NO catalytic convertor at all.

So the environmental impact is the same anyways.