QJ Motor Built A New Maxi-Scooter, And Kymco Would Like To Have A Word

Kymco says it never gave QJ Motor permission to use its AK 550 platform, and legal action could be one possible next step.

There’s nothing particularly unusual about two  having similar specs. There’s only so much you can do with two wheels, a step-through-ish frame, a CVT, and enough bodywork to make a sportbike jealous. But when the similarities start getting oddly specific, someone is eventually going to start asking questions.

In the case of   that someone is  , and the Taiwanese manufacturer would very much like to know what’s going on.

The Fort 600 is QJ Motor’s new flagship maxi-scooter, powered by a 550cc parallel-twin producing roughly 53 horsepower. Its spec sheet includes a 1,580mm wheelbase, 120/70-15 front and 160/60-15 rear tires, upside-down forks, dual front discs, ABS, and a CVT. It’s an impressively serious scooter, but those numbers might sound rather familiar if you’ve spent any time staring at a Kymco AK 550.

And apparently, Kymco noticed too.

The company has now denying reports and speculation that QJ Motor had been granted access to the AK 550’s technology. Kymco says it has never signed an agreement with QJ Motor to share the AK 550 platform, nor has it authorized or otherwise permitted QJ Motor to use it. That’s an unusually specific thing for a manufacturer to clarify publicly, particularly when nobody has actually filed a lawsuit yet.

Things get more interesting in the second half of Kymco’s statement. The company says that once production versions of the Fort 600 become available, it’ll conduct whatever investigations it considers appropriate. Depending on what those investigations uncover, Kymco says it’ll then determine what “possible measures” to take. That’s not an explicit threat of legal action, but it certainly leaves the door open.

There’s a good reason Kymco is protective of this particular scooter. The AK 550 wasn’t just another big CVT-equipped commuter when it arrived. Kymco says the project represented more than 50 years of accumulated engineering knowledge and involved more than 45 patents. Among its distinguishing features is a patented powertrain architecture separating the engine and transmission into independent assemblies, paired with a 270-degree crank, wet multiplate clutch, dry-sump lubrication, and an aluminum frame.

That  didn’t disappear after the AK 550 launched, either. Kymco has continued developing it, and the company specifically points to the current CV3 575 three-wheeler as using an engine derived directly from the architecture originally developed for the AK. In other words, this isn’t some dusty patent portfolio Kymco forgot about in a filing cabinet. It’s technology the company still considers important to its current lineup.

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None of this means QJ Motor copied Kymco’s engineering, and that’s an important distinction. Two motorcycles sharing dimensions, specifications, or engineering concepts doesn’t automatically establish that protected intellectual property has been used. Kymco itself hasn’t publicly accused QJ Motor of infringement. Instead, it’s waiting until it can examine an actual production Fort 600 before deciding whether there’s anything worth pursuing.

And that’s where this gets pretty awkward. Reports surrounding the Fort 600 had previously described the scooter as sharing technology with Kymco’s AK 550. Kymco has now publicly responded with what amounts to: That’s interesting, because we certainly didn’t give it to them.

So for now, nobody’s getting sued, nobody’s officially been accused of copying anything, and the Fort 600 remains QJ Motor’s shiny new maxi-scooter. But once production bikes start reaching the market, you can bet Kymco’s engineers will be among the people taking a very, very close look at one.