Scomadi is a brand of British designed scooters, produced in Thailand.

History

Scomadi TL200 in Mint Green

Management/Ownership change and New factory

In 2019, after some difficult financial times, Scomadi saw a change in management. The company since the start had been British owned. Following financial challenges, the management structure was changed. This saw the involvement of two firms, Minor International and CT Engineering. Minor International is a leisure brand specialist, and CT Automotive is a component manufacturer. CT Automotive in particular, bought the double effect of bringing components manufacture into the process, as well as being able to utilise their distribution channels.^[6] Founder Frank Sanderson and his wife moved to Thailand to continue involvement, with Frank continuing to work on development and technical innovation.^[7]

A new factory was built for Scomadi in Pattaya in Thailand in 2020, in the national "Bike Hub" area, with famous motorcycle marques Triumph, Ducati and Harley Davidson. This is a state of the art assembly factory with an advanced assembly line that can pump out a scooter every 20 minutes.^[8]

Controversy with Royal Alloy Scooters

Following the move to large scale production, Scomadi scooters were manufactured in China by Hanway Motors who initially productionised the Scomadi 3D CAD designs. After many delays, they brought the 50 cc to market in 2015. This was followed by the 125 cc then the 200cc TL models.

Scomadi Turismo Technica - 2022

A court case later ensued where Hanway claimed to have contributed more to the project than the brand owners thought fair. Scomadi themselves claimed that the Chinese producer, Hanway, had "violated Scomadi's intellectual property rights by making scooters under the Royal Alloy brand, which look almost identical to Scomadi designs".^[9] Royal Alloy had started producing and selling scooters that were the same scooter as the Scomadi, but with subtle visual differences ^[10] This court case was found in Hanways favor. Scomadi moved to appeal, but later negotiated to a compromise, which saw the cessation of all legal action between the two by 2019 on condition that the conditions of said agreement were not breached.^[11][12] Details of the court case can be found here... https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5b2897a92c94e06b9e19813d

Design

Scomadi TL scooters are a modern design, but resemble 1960s era Innocenti produced Lambretta's, in particular the GP/DL model.^[13] Early Scomadi TL scooters used Piaggio engines. The Scomadi TT still kept its Lambretta themed styling but stater to move away from the GP/DL. Multiple prototypes and drawings have been seen including a scooter that resembles a Lambretta Series 1^[5] and a TL with a 385cc Moto Morini engine.^[14]

Scomadi

Models

Electric Version Development

Scomadi have spent some years working on an electric version of the Scomadi, with two major developments.

Scomadi accounted initially released information about their plans about an electric scooter in 2017. This involved the conversion of a standard scooter, to take an electric motor, and battery.^[15] Reviews noted that it performed well, and had a top speed of 75 miles per hour, and it was likened to a Vespa GTS 300 in terms of power, but with greater acceleration.^[16]

A second development in 2021 saw a collaboration with UK Electric Engine developer Saietta. In many ways, it is similar to the original electric prototype. This effort involved the supplanting of a Saetta 48 Volt power plant into a 125cc model Scomadi.

Saietta had initially been developing their own electric motorbikes, but more recently had switched to focussing on just producing electric engines and battery technology, so had moved to placing their electric engines in pre existing motorbike and scooter frames, from established manufacturers.

Saietta had discussed the electric model going into production "as quickly as possible". Production of the new electric Saietta model would take place at Scomadi's Thailand base production facility.^[17]

References