New outboard manufacturer

[Hole Shot]

Has anyone heard anything about Kawasaki producing a direct injected 4 str ?

[Triple]

Rumours of them bringing them out since 2008... You would think they would be close to a release date by now :)
http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=108585&stc=1

[Noelm]

While I am positive lots of manufacturers could make a high quality outboard, I am not too sure the market would be big enough to invest the zillions of dollars it would take to get a new brand established, would be enticing enough to have a go.

[Moonlighter]

Noel is right. It is already a crowded market, and a fairly small one at that.

For instance, I was doing some research the other day and looked at Suzuki's head office website in Japan.

Revenue worldwide in FY 2013 from their various businesses were are follows. These figures are in billions of Yen:

cars: ¥2,616
motorcycles: ¥267
other (marine). ¥56

So by revenue, marine is about 2% of their total revenue. And don't forget that by size, Suzuki is by no means a big auto manufacturer when compared to the likes of Toyota!

To put it into perspective, ¥56billion is about A$593M.

Now there is a fair bit of plant and equipment and personnel and other investment required to get that $593M return. Yes, you can leverage off the other businesses in the group - Suzuki for instance has one foundry that does all its work for cars, bikes and marine, but still, it has to make economic sense.

[Phydeaux]

but the percentage of profit in the revenue from Marine makes the cars and motorcycles look like somalian kids

honestly a 200hp car is cheaper than a 200hp outboard motor these days, a car would have to last 100.000km which at 100km/h is 100.000 hours, a boat motor ? please

Suzuki charged $3.5k for a replacement 4 cyl motor, new in box with oil in it for a swift now that's 100hp, a 100hp boat engine is how much?

If Kawa comes in with %30 off then they would still make money and level the competition, for crying out loud they advertise "lean burn" now? really ? an O2 sensor and ECU control to bring the A/F rations in line? this was sone in the 80's!

I don't think the market is saturated, there should be at leat 10 more manufacturers joining in and a few chinese ones, let them battle it out in the end we are the winners

[Sleepydragon]

I can not agree more with this comment above. Yes, lets them fight the more the better for us.

[Moonlighter]

but the percentage of profit in the revenue from Marine makes the cars and motorcycles look like somalian kids

Really? Please produce the facts and data that back up that statement. Actual profit figures from a marine outboard motor manufacturer please. I would be very interested to see those actual figures. Some ROI figures would be good too.

If in fact, Kawasaki have been touting this since 2008, it would seem that if there is such a large profit margin as you seem to think there is in outboard motors, then Kawasaki must be pretty slow on the uptake if they haven't twigged to it yet and made their move? Or anyone else for that matter.

[aussiebasser]

I normally read about Kawasaki Outboards on April 1st, not May 1st.

[sandbank pete]

I don't know if it would be an April fools joke Dale, Kawasaki have a huge marine portfolio and an outboard product line would make commercial sense for them. Reasons for the delay on releasing a new product could be as simple as the GFC (at the time) and the earthquakes/tsunamis of recent years that decimated jap manufacture..