Who is who in this brand puzzle

There is nothing more to see Sales rankings in Spain To accept an irrefatible truth: Chinese brands have come to stay. In key segments, such as trail, voge You already have the best selling motorcycle. And, if we look at the photograph of January 2025, 11 of the 50 best -selling motorcycles in Spain They came from China. Even more recent data, of April 2025show how Chinese brands already occupy the third and fourth position.

Being relatively new and unknown brands for our market, it is convenient to know who is who in this new scenario. One in which we do want an equipped motorcycle, with the latest technologies and an affordable price, it becomes practically mandatory to look at China.

VOGE

If you are in the motorcycle world it is likely to sound Loncina Chinese giant founded in 1993. This Chinese manufacturer It has been making engines for more than 20 years and components for European companies, in BWM association for some of your best engines. In fact, the current 900cc engines of the German brand come from the hand of Loncin. Yeah, German motorcycles have a Chinese engine.

In 2018, Loncin Motor decides to take advantage of this knowledge obtained in the motorcycle industry to create Voge, a brand that was born with Premium product aspirations. Voge’s goal, from the beginning, is to compete with European brands such as BMW and Triumph.

Only one year after its creation, in 2019, The brand landed in Spain. In just five years it already has models such as 900 DSXleader in its category. Currently, with data from the month of April, Voge is the third motorcycle manufacturer in Spain for enrollments with an interannual growth of almost 100%.

Voge stands out for what Chinese brands are achieving: almost insurmountable quality-quality. It is the Chinese brand with the rival closest to the most popular trail, the BMW F900 GS. Its DSX, up of extras, is sold for 9,192 euros (with IMU Bosch of six axes, ABS in curve, integrated camera, mobile connectivity, proximity radar, etc.). Its equivalent in BMW, with similar equipment, exceeds 15,000 euros.

Zontes

Together with Voge, Zontes is one of the brands that is sweeping the most in Spain. In fact, it is one of the few that is opening 100% own dealers, and not selling inside multimarca (something common in small brands even outside China, such as Guzzi Moto, Aphrillia, etc.).

Zontes is The youngest company on the listBorn in 2003 in under the Guangdong Group Tayo Motorcycle Technology Co. Zontes’s main objective is clear: enter the consumer’s eyes. They presume from have registered More than 256 design patents, and ensure high production standards despite the final quality.

In Spain it is sweeping, and It is the fourth manufacturer nationwide In April, above brands such as BMW or Kawasaki and with an interannual growth of almost 65%.

Among its star models, Zontes offers the tricylindric 703Fa sport tourism equipped to the teeth and with a price of 7,992 euros. In the Scooters A2 segment, historically monopolized by Honda and Yamaha, 368 ADV (yes, it has exactly the same last name as the Honda 350 ADV.

The main key: Zontes Adventure is sold for € 5,592 and the Honda for 6,740 euros without an extra. Honda is Hondaor so says the saying, but Zontes is entering with a brutal price.

Cfmoto

CF Moto It is another young brand, founded in 1989. After developing engines and vehicles in China, the company began to establish collaborations with giants like KTMbeing its main distributor in China in 2011. Six years later Both formed a joint business (Zhejiang cfmoto-ktmr2r motorcycle.co), with cfmoto as a majority shareholder.

This allowed Cfmoto to manufacture both motorcycles and engines for KTM in China. But it should not be confused: neither cfmoto is ktm nor ktm are cfmoto. They are independent companies and, in fact, in Spain KTM no longer distributes cfmoto after the company’s crisis.

Cfmoto stands out for his good work in the half displacement with models such as the CF Moto 450 Mta Dakarian who is sold for less than 6,000 euros. His designs especially call attention, and begins to be increasingly present at Spanish dealerships.

QJ Motor

QJ MotorQianjiang Motorcycle, has a story that dates back to 1985, so it is also a relatively young brand. It is the motorcycle brand of the giant Geely Holding GroupChinese company after Volvo and Lynk & Co. Its landing in Spain occurred in 2022, although the manufacturer has failed to sneak into the top sales.

Among its catalog, motorcycles such as SRT 700X wave SRT 800X They stand out for offering economic alternatives in the Trail segment for card owners A2. QJ Motor is not as popular as Voge or Zontes, but it is more than likely to know one of the brands under its umbrella.

Benelli

Look at one Benelli Trk 702 and an QJ Motor SRT 700 is to look (at least aesthetically) at the same motorcycle. There is a clear why. It is another of the brands under Geely’s umbrella, and depend on the same group: Qianjiang Motorcycle Company (QJ Motors). This is why, some of Benelli and QJ Motes are practically identical, since they share platforms, motors and technology.

But Benelli’s story is not that of a young Chinese brand, It is that of a small Italian workshop in the city of regretoofounded by Teresa Benelli and specialized in motorcycle repair. In 1921 they launched their first “velomotore 75cc”, managing to stay as a reference brand in Italy during World War II, with more than 1,000 victories in motorcycle races of two and four times.

Economic difficulties begin in the 70s. Alejandro de TomasoArgentine entrepreneur with participation in Maserati, ends up acquiring the group and revitalizing it with groundbreaking models such as Benelli Sei, one of the few motorcycles in the world with six online cylinders.

Innovations were not enough to achieve the expected results, and in 2005 the brand was acquired by QJ Motors. Thus, the main difference between QJ and Benelli is that the first is a 100% Chinese brand, and the second a European brand with Chinese support. Some models drink directly from QJ, but others are their own development.

Keeway

The third great brand with presence in Spain of the QJ Group is Keeway, a brand born in Hong Kong in the late 90s. Keeway was one of the first Chinese brands of motorcycles to reach Spain, with presence since 2000. It is a brand with a lower profile and without as much ambition as Voge, Zontes or CF Moto. He does not want to compete in the Premium segment, he wants to offer alternatives at the lowest possible price in the low segment.

Keeway mainly distributes low displaced motorcycles (125cc) and, although it has never reached the top five of sales in Spain, Yes, you have placed some of its models in the Top 10.

Morini Moto

The history of Moto Morini, as you will intuit by its name, is that of another Italian manufacturer absorbed by a Chinese giant group. Founded in Bologna in 1937 by Alfonso Morini, a former pilot and mechanical passionate about motorcycling, was another of the renowned brands in the Italian competition in the 50s.

With the arrival of Japanese motorcycles to Europe in the 1980s Morini suffered an important crisis, selling to Grupo Cagiva in 1987 and breaking in 1999. In 2012, the Chinese group ZongShen. This, founded in 1992, specializes in motorcycles, with a production focused on its native country.

With models such as X-Cape 650 (5,989 euros) or the STR Semimezzo (5,380 euros), the company fights directly in the most important segments of card A2: Trail and Naked. The prices are demolished and the brand begins to be seen in multi -brand distributors.

Spain and Chinese motorcycles

April data are just the beginning. The motorcycle market grows moderately year after year, and in Spain Chinese motorcycle is sold more and more. If Voge and Zontes growth figures are maintained, which end up surpassing Yamaha and Honda, it is only a matter of time, something unusual in a market historically dominated by Japanese motorcycles.

Alarm signals for giants such as Kymco, BMW and Kawasaki, which enroll practically half of motorcycles than their Chinese competitors. Kymco’s fall in the last month was almost 30%, and in the case of BMW close to 20%.

Spain has been living for years An inflationary escalation that It does not seem to have an endthe perfect context for China floods the country of economic vehicles. It is something that It is already happening in the field of the carin which Chinese brands like MG already take the top three in sales, pushing to lead the first two positions.

Not everything that shines

A vehicle has two types of expense: the initial when buying it, and that of the maintenance that we will have to do throughout its useful life. There it is precisely, where we will have to take into account if we are really saving or not with a Chinese motorcycle.

Except for exceptions, such as the Voge Lancin engine (the same of BMW), whose maintenance is performed every 10,000km, the Chinese motorcycles usually have very short maintenance intervals: between 5,000 and 6,000 kilometers. It is no problem for the user who has the motorcycle as a leisure vehicle and in low annual mileage. For those who use the motorcycle daily and like long routes every weekend, this is a weight problem.

The labor price In this type of brands it is practically identical to that of traditional brands (although it will depend completely on the workshop we go), but it usually is around 50 euros/hour. If we make an average of 10,000/12,000 kilometers a year, we will be obliged to pass two annual revisions to conserve the guarantee.

European manufacturers have been strengthening the reliability of their engines to extend maintenance intervals up to 12,000 or even 16,000km in the case of Triumph, a very point to take into account depending on the use we want to give to our purchase.

Image | CF Moto

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