China Becomes The World's Largest Motorcycle Producer

China has now taken over Japan as the largest producer of motorcycles in the world. Yearly, 50 million motorcycles are produced worldwide, and China now produces at least 27.5 million of that figure or a little more than 50% of the total world production. China has already taken over the top spot in world automobile production by producing 13,790,994 units in 2009, compared to 7,934,516 from Japan and just 5,711,823 from the U.S., and Germany at 5,209,857 and South Korea at 3,512,916.

Interestingly, some historic American companies like Harley Davidson are moving ahead for plans to produce motorcycles in China, but whether they will be exported to the U.S. or simply sold in this Asian market is not quite known yet. But, given the nature of so much production of goods for sale in the U.S. made in China, the eventual production Of some legendary U.S. brands is probably only a matter of time.

The Chinese city of Chongqing, which has about 10 million in population may not be household name in the U.S. But, this modern city has become China's motorcycle production center, with more than 10 million motorcycles a year coming out of this city alone. In fact, four of five of the largest Chinese motorcycle brands that produce over 1 million units a year come out of this city. China has more than 130 motorcycle brands.

The biggest issues for China are to produce higher horsepower more powerful and modern motorcycles, as so much of Chinese production has revolved around largely simple one cylinder air cooled models. But, with more and more high tech equipment being produced in China, better motorcycles will be coming from China as this nation seeks to become the largest and most powerful economy in the world.

Chinese motorcycle brands are even beginning to better understand just what Americans really want, and more and more products solely tailored to U.S. buyers such as choppers and trike styles are getting more and more popular as export items due to the popularity of American TV shows such as AMERICAN CHOPPER. What looks like a $100,000 custom bike is suddenly affordable. However, most of these need bigger engines. But, you know that China will improve there in the future.

China is the new up and coming player both with automobiles and bikes. You can expect horsepower and quality to improve over time, and for one day some Chinese brands to be known for their quality and performance both. Chinese products continue to improve each day.