I was having a browse on the Kymco website, and I noticed the price of their 400i model. Looking at reviews took me to their UK sight, and as far as I can tell it is actually $13000 NT cheaper to buy in the UK than Taiwan.
My question is, how can this be? 
Easy, Taiwan suffers from a bike overpopulation, so they don’t want any big bikes around and charge a premium for it. You won’t see many Zings or Venox around, either, and the motor is not big, but the motorcycle size is bigger than the average scooter.
Further to your comment, I imagine that the “they” in “they don’t want big bikes around” is the drivers of vehicles who already hate putting up with scooters on the main street, so we don’t want these big bikes taking up our protected space in the car lanes and on our highways. This the rejection of big bikes from being used on the freeways here, where any other civilized country in the world would allow it. Hell, even Canada allows a >100CC bike on the highway as long as it keeps up to the minimum limit.
However, at least in Kaohsiung, the price of the big bikes isn’t stopping people from buying them, as there are large groups of riders now all summer long driving around.
Even though the bike may be pricier here, at least the low insurance cost makes up for it 
It’s to do with mistrust of people’s riding ability and behaviour. Big bikes were illegal in Taiwan for years . Nothing wrong with any bikers as long as they know how to ride and don’t turn certain roads into race tracks. Riding a big bike is a very different thing to riding a scooter.
I can imagine the carnage on Road 9 if thousands of unqualified bikers could afford to purchase a 300cc + bike.
I do agree that over time there would be big savings on insurance, so I guess it evens out and more.
headhoncho I noticed that the big bike riders are usually more careful than the scooter riders, they must keep their headlight on in the day, they have a sticker front plate so cameras can pick them up if they are speeding, they wear full face helmets and usually correct motorcycle riding gear, and in general they actually do seem to know how to ride.
That said, I used to see packs of them up in Tainan going down main roads at speeds of over 150km and likely even faster. They also not only enjoy the benefit of riding in the car lanes, but when it suits them they become a scooter “illegally” and drive in scooter lanes to get to the front of the pack which is annoying.
Further to your comment, I imagine that the “they” in “they don’t want big bikes around” is the drivers of vehicles who already hate putting up with scooters on the main street, so we don’t want these big bikes taking up our protected space in the car lanes and on our highways. This the rejection of big bikes from being used on the freeways here, where any other civilized country in the world would allow it. Hell, even Canada allows a >100CC bike on the highway as long as it keeps up to the minimum limit.
However, at least in Kaohsiung, the price of the big bikes isn’t stopping people from buying them, as there are large groups of riders now all summer long driving around.
Even though the bike may be pricier here, at least the low insurance cost makes up for it [/quote]
When I said “They”, I was referring to the government, who actually makes the laws and probably has taxed heavily the high-cc motorcycles.
The no-freeway, no-speedway thing here is ridiculous. I’ve done enough Km to cross Taiwan north-to-south in a single afternoon, all in spanish freeways with my 125cc custom motorcycle. Sure, I was almost all the time in the right lane, and my top speed was 120 Km/h when rolling down a hill, and 90 Km/h when climbing. But it was a great experience.
When I did the same itinerary using secondary routes, I had to be on the road for almost 13 hours, dealing with heavy traffic, rogue trucks, bad pavement… It was riskier, and I ended up so tired that when I arrived my destination (really late at night) I could barely see the road marks.
I regard freeways and highways as a much safer way of routing long distances. Anyways, I’m talking about custom bikes, which is my preferred kind of bike. Great stability, more comfort, and after all, it’s pointless to have a sports bike that can hit 200+ Km/h if you can’t go faster than 120 and the route is full of speed radars.
Actually that is interesting but seems likely. I noticed the same weird thing with computers and electronics. They all were cheaper if bought in the US! I looked at ASUS and ACER computers and found on the average I could buy them for 5-15% cheaper in the US. No explanation.
Because the US-based computer companies have lower prices, and if ASUS and ACER want to stay in the game, they have to lower their prices as well or they wouldn’t sell anything.