Interview: Conversation with Director, Luke Sommen of Hunted Scooters

Me and my friend were having a general conversation about motorcycles and I showed him scooters from Hunted Scooters his reaction was noteworthy and was as below.

How does it look? Again he checks with me
Me: You definitely need to look at it mate.

What is it a Superbike, Scooter? He asks me.
Me: Nooooo. It is a Super Scooter. Why dont you take a look at it.

Then I showed him a few pictures of Hunted Scooters.
His Reaction: Wow I haven’t seen anything such thing before.These are unique.

I told him we are going to talk to Luke Sommen, Director of Hunted Scooters to know more about Hunted Scooters and here is our below conversation with him.

1. How did Hunted Scooters start?
Luke : After seeing the custom scooters in Tokyo in the early 2000s where OEM scooters were chopped, dropped, stretched and upgraded to the extreme, we knew straight away we needed to introduce this to the Australian scooter marketplace.  

I have always loved the freedom and simplicity of scooters twist and go convenience yet there were only two options offered to the Australian marketplace, Classic styled or plastic-clad sports scooters, none of these options offered a chance for their owners to customize or stand out from the pack in 2015 we went on a mission to find a truly customizable scooter suitable and legal for the Australian marketplace.

2. The design of the scooter looks Rad and mix of the bike as well as the scooter. How did that happen?
Luke : After seeing what Japan’s custom scooter scene had to offer on these otherwise boring scooter commuters along with America’s growing popularity with the customization of the Honda Ruckus, we decided to explore the opportunity of this style of the highly customized scooter in the Australian marketplace.

We looked at the cost of importing a USA custom-built Honda Ruckus and complying it in accordance with the strict Australian ADR regulations and roadworthiness legislation. This custom scooter road legal was going to set back purchasers in the vicinity of AUD$25,000 -$30,000 as a purchase price.

This was a figure we knew the market wouldn’t bare! So we set out on a mission to manufacture a product that looked custom from the crate, that was federally approved on the Australian roads that also allowed the customer to add their own personality too.

After months of seeking a suitable manufacturer to provide us with a sample scooter for testing, we found a factory that was willing to stick by us through the testing process and would assist us in making a prototype scooter that met and passed the testing required for the Australian roads.   

3. Typically what is the time frame that is required to build this scooter?
Luke: Following 9 months of testing every component on our scooter, we finally received approval in 2016 to import Australia’s first custom looking scooter to the marketplace.

After further research, we found that the market was only 4% of total motorbike sales nationally. The majority of the existing scooter market was owned by PGO (Vespa & Piaggio) and Honda taking 75% of this market. We realized that space for our scooter in a dominated marketplace was small.  

4. Do you have any plans to expand in other parts of the world?
Luke : At this stage we a refocusing on Australia and New Zealand with a combined total sales of 5500 units per year although we have had a number of interested buyers from the UK, EU and Africa looking to import our unique scooter to their respective marketplaces.

5. Do you also plan to build more models of the scooter?
Luke:We are looking to offer our riders a chance to customize their scooter directly through our website, however, these custom parts are merely cosmetic as our requirement for change requires us to comply every part offered to the Australian market the strict and stringent ADR regulations.

Our dream is to build a showroom and shop where customers can come and build their own dream street beast in the house.

6. How do we see Hunted Scooters 5 years down the line?
Luke : We are constantly evolving, with each series limited to 76 units, our production model has been through 4 variants from our genesis in Oct 2016, with improved components and build quality each series we are aiming to improve our customer’s experience and level of enjoyment of our product.

We are looking to offer our riders a 170cc variant in 2020 and we have even explored the possibility of and zero-emissions electric variant that can travel over 100klms/hr however the production cost is well over what the Australian market is willing to pay for an eco thrill-seeking unique mode of transport!

We look forward to the cost of the battery and drive unit to make this viable for a cost-sensitive marketplace.   

Conclusion

Is there anything else that you are looking for ?

Source : Hunted Scooters