Team Zongshen rider Yu Tang came through in a surprise win in Sunday’s FIM e-Power International Championship event at Oschersleben. After teammate Ho Chi Fung’s respectable third place in Saturday’s three-lap sprint, Tang found himself on the highest step of the podium after favorites, and Munch Racing teammates, Matthias Himmelmann and Katja Poensgen experienced mechanical trouble. The Zongshen rider took the chequered flag at the end of the ten-lap race ahead of Udo Reichmann (Reichmann Racing-Mavizen) and Christian Amendt (epo-Bike).  Continue Reading »

Okay, the headline sounds like the setup to a bad joke, but it pretty much describes the scene in the picture above released by the Piaggio Group.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is in China this month to mark the 40th anniversary of his secret diplomatic visit in 1971 which paved the way for formalized relations between China and the United States.

Last week, the noted diplomat went through the city of Chongqing, one of China’s largest municipalities and home of the Piaggio Zongshen Foshan Motorcycle Co., a joint venture partially owned by the Piaggio Group.

Piaggio Zongshen Foshan took the opportunity to debut the Chongqing police force’s fleet of 30 police-spec Aprilia Mana 850 motorcycles as Kissinger’s escort.

Powered by an 850cc 90-degree V-Twin engine, the Mana is equipped with an automatic transmission as well as a semi-manual 7-speed sequential transmission and three engine mappings. The police version is specially customized with radio equipment, sirens and other equipment.

[Source: Piaggio]

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The Piaggio Group announced plans to open a new research and development center in China for producing new vehicles specifically for the Asian market.

The new R&D facility will be located in Foshan, an industrial center in southern China which also houses Piaggio Zongshen Foshan Motorcycle Co., a joint venture owned by Piaggio (45%), the Zongshen Group (45%) and the municipality of Foshan (10%). The new center will be 100% owned by Piaggio, and will focus on developing electric motors, diesel engines as well as small commercial vehicles.

Piaggio plans to employ about 50 engineers at the Foshan R&D center.

Press release after the jump.

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