The distributors of Australia's best selling quad bike brand say the bush is the backbone of its business.
In 2008 Mojo Motorcycles and its dealer network began supplying farmers with CFMoto all-terrain vehicles.
Its a partnership that has been lucrative for all parties with retail sales of CFMoto ATVs and side-by-sides more than doubling in the past five years alone.
Mojo Motorcycles director Michael Poynton said when it comes to what farmers are looking for, the 400 to 500cc segment seems to be the sweet spot.
When CFMoto was founded in 1989 it sold engine componentry to other manufacturers.
The company has evolved over the past 33 years and today produces scooters, ATVs, UTVs and motorcycles. It also has distribution and joint ventures with KTM and Husqvarna.
CFMoto products are sold in more than 100 countries and it is the number one selling brand in 17 of these markets.
In 2021 the company's sales hit US$1.2 billion with 64 per cent of its revenue coming from the sale of ATVs and UTVs.
Its next biggest segment is motorcycles, generating 30pc.
All of its ATVs and UTVs are manufactured at its facility and headquarters in Hangzhou, China.
Mr Poynton said CFMoto had always been a big investor in new technology and just under 5pc of its revenue goes toward research and development.
Its 800 engineers make up a solid 20pc of the company's workforce of 4500.
Mr Poyton said the brand was now well established, particularly in rural Australia, and sales here were close to a 50/50 split for ATVs and UTVs.
He has witnessed first-hand the shift in response to the brand at agricultural field days.
"Probably for the first five years it was education, no one had heard of CFMoto, and we were explaining who they are and why they are different to other Chinese manufacturers," Mr Poynton said.
"You go to these events now and they are great selling events; very rarely now will someone come up to the stand and say, 'who is CFMoto'.
"It is all very positive; they've either had one themselves and had a good experience with it or know someone who has one."
Committed to the Australian market
When the Australian government announced it was changing the safety standards for quad bikes, Mojo and CFMoto made the decision to stay in the market.
In order to ensure its ATVs met the standards, more than $200,000 was invested in independently testing the nine bike models in its range.
They also partnered with Queensland-based manufacturer Quadbar to make operator protection devices that were specific to its models.
Read more:
In terms of fitting the device, Mr Poynton said it was quite straightforward and took dealers no more than 10 to 15 minutes.
He said OPDs were no longer a talking point and were now well accepted by customers.
"We took the view to transition the new models in as early as possible," Mr Poynton said.
"We thought the sooner we could get the product into the marketplace, the easier the transition would be.
"It has been well received by dealers and customers."
What's in the pipeline
The company has just revamped its CForce 400, 400 EPS and 520 EPS quad bikes, which Mr Poynton said are its "bread and butter models" here in Australia.
Mr Poynton expects motorcycles will be another big growth area for CFMoto in the years ahead.
He said the company had also been looking at the global trend in the automotive space toward electric vehicles.
Later this month CFMoto's first electric ATV for the youth market, the CForce EV110, will be officially launched and go on sale in Australia.
"Their DNA has always been to be at the forefront of leading technology and when you forward-think to the next 10 years, electric is going to play a big part in anything automotive and CFMoto don't want to get left behind with that," Mr Poynton said.
"We're getting more and more requests from customers, even in the ATV and also side-by-side space.
"I think we'll probably see an electric side-by-side first and while it hasn't been officially released, my tip on that would be in the next few years."
- The writer travelled as a guest of CFMoto Australia.