Who Makes CFMOTO? Ownership, Factories & Engines

CFMOTO ATVs, side-by-sides and engines are made by CFMOTO, the Chinese powersports manufacturer whose listed operating company is Zhejiang CFMOTO Power Co., Ltd. The company is headquartered in Hangzhou, China. It sells CFORCE ATVs, UFORCE utility side-by-sides and ZFORCE sport side-by-sides in the United States through CFMOTO Powersports Inc. KTM is a motorcycle joint-venture partner, not the owner or manufacturer of all CFMOTO off-road engines.

That answers who makes CFMOTO. But if you’re choosing a four-wheeler or UTV, I’d separate the manufacturer, the factory, the engine and the U.S. seller. They’re different questions, and the answers can change by model.

Who owns CFMOTO, and where is it made?

CFMOTO is a Chinese brand, not an American or Austrian one. Its legal manufacturer is a publicly traded Chinese company, so describing it as a small private brand owned outright by one founder misses the current corporate structure.

Question	Supported answer
Who makes the vehicles?	Zhejiang CFMOTO Power Co., Ltd., the manufacturer behind the CFMOTO brand and its off-road product families.
Who controls the company?	The 2025 annual report, published April 16, 2026, identifies Chunfeng Holding Group Co., Ltd. as the controlling shareholder and Lai Guogui as the ultimate controller. Zhejiang CFMOTO Power is listed in Shanghai under stock code 603129.
Where is headquarters?	Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China.
Where does CFMOTO manufacture?	CFMOTO’s global company profile lists manufacturing operations in China, Thailand and Mexico. That does not establish which factory assembled a particular U.S.-market ATV or UTV.
Who handles U.S. sales?	CFMOTO Powersports Inc., a U.S. subsidiary, imports and distributes vehicles through dealers. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission identifies the importer as based in Plymouth, Minnesota.
Are CFMOTO ATVs made in the USA?	Don’t confuse a U.S. distributor with a U.S. factory. For example, the 2024 CFORCE Touring recall explicitly identifies the affected vehicles as manufactured in China. I found no documented U.S. manufacturing operation for the models discussed here; check the individual vehicle’s origin information rather than assuming every CFMOTO comes from the same plant.

What matters to you is not whether the brand has an American address. It’s whether your exact vehicle is supported by a nearby dealer, whether parts can be ordered without a long delay, and whether the seller can show you the model’s actual warranty and recall status.

What does CFMOTO mean, and how long has the company existed?

CFMOTO traces its beginnings to 1989, when its business started with motorcycle parts in China. Its company history places its first ATV in 2005 and its U.S. subsidiary in 2007. That makes the business 37 years old in 2026, although that is not 37 years of making ATVs.

As for the name, CFMOTO Canada’s company history links the letters CF to Chunfeng, translated as “spring wind.” CFMOTO is the brand name; there’s no need to invent a separate full-word expansion for every letter of “MOTO.”

Who makes CFMOTO ATV and side-by-side engines?

CFMOTO makes and brands its own off-road vehicle and powertrain products. That doesn’t mean every component is designed, licensed, manufactured and assembled by the same company: an engine can contain third-party components without being a competitor’s engine.

The reliable way to identify yours is to start with its model family, model year and market.

The label “CFMOTO 1000 engine” is particularly misleading. The following examples are from CFMOTO’s 2025 U.S. off-road brochure, not an assertion about every year or every country:

2025 U.S. off-road model	Manufacturer-listed engine	What “1000” means here
CFORCE 1000 Touring / Overland ATVs	963 cc liquid-cooled, eight-valve V-twin	“1000” is a model designation, not the exact displacement.
UFORCE 1000 / 1000 XL utility UTVs	963 cc liquid-cooled, eight-valve V-twin	The same displacement and cylinder layout as the listed CFORCE models; don’t assume all internal parts are interchangeable.
UFORCE U10 Pro / U10 XL Pro utility UTVs	998 cc liquid-cooled, three-cylinder DOHC engine	A different engine architecture from the UFORCE 1000 V-twin, despite the similar-sounding name.

The 2025 brochure also lists a 998 cc turbocharged three-cylinder engine in the ZFORCE Z10 sport side-by-side. It is another reason not to order engine parts by the word “1000” alone. Ask the parts desk to match the VIN, model year, trim and engine specification.

Does KTM make CFMOTO’s engines?

Not as a blanket rule. CFMOTO and KTM established a motorcycle manufacturing joint venture in 2018. The joint venture’s own description identifies KTM’s 790 motorcycle engine platform and frame technology as part of its two-wheeler business. CFMOTO’s corporate filings identify the venture as CFMOTO-controlled, rather than KTM owning CFMOTO.

That is evidence of a motorcycle technology and production relationship. It is not evidence that KTM designed or manufactures the 963 cc V-twin in a CFORCE or UFORCE, or the 998 cc U10 Pro triple.

Nor does the presence of Bosch fuel injection or a branded CVT make Bosch or the transmission supplier the engine manufacturer. For a specific engine’s design origin, licensing or assembly plant, a parts catalog or engine-specific manufacturing record would be needed; I wouldn’t claim more than the model documentation establishes.

Are CFMOTO ATVs and UTVs any good? Are they reliable?

CFMOTO has credible, well-equipped machines worth comparing, but equipment, ride quality and long-term reliability aren’t the same thing. I don’t have a defensible brand-wide failure rate, and neither a single owner’s success story nor a recall total can produce one.

What the vehicle tests actually show

For ATVs, Dirt Wheels’ 2025 recreational-utility ATV buyer’s guide covers the CFORCE 1000 Touring’s features and ride impressions. That helps establish what one version is like to ride and equip; it doesn’t tell you how often its engine fails after years of work.

For utility side-by-sides, 4Riders’ test of the 2025 UFORCE U10 Pro describes useful comfort and equipment while criticizing aspects of the side protection and suspension adjustment. That test used a vehicle supplied by CFMOTO Canada.

Separately, Farmers Weekly’s U10 Pro farm test found a comfortable cabin but noted noise at higher engine speeds and difficulty reading the selected gear. These are model-specific, relatively short tests, including non-U.S. vehicles—not durability statistics for every American trim.

What owners report—and what they don’t prove

In a 2026 r/UTV discussion, a Caribbean operator reported running multiple UFORCE 600 and 1000 machines in rugged service. The account included working vehicles, suspension wear, a failed water pump still awaiting repair, and belt replacement.

Another commenter described a light-duty UFORCE 1000 with a glazed belt at under 500 miles and troublesome shifting; a separate owner reported around 1,000 miles on a 2024 ZFORCE Sport 4 without major trouble and said replacement consumables had arrived promptly.

Those accounts have useful model, usage and maintenance context, but they’re self-reported and not independently inspected. The fleet operator was outside the U.S., and the unresolved water-pump complaint is not a documented completed repair.

Reposts of that operator’s account shouldn’t be counted as separate owners. None of these anecdotes establishes a recurring defect rate—or guarantees that the next machine will behave the same way.

There is also a documented safety issue to check by VIN: on October 24, 2024, the CPSC announced a recall of 2024 CFORCE 800 Touring and 1000 Touring ATVs because the throttle could fail to return to idle.

The remedy was a free dealer repair, with instructions to stop riding affected vehicles until repaired. That is a specific, consequential issue—not a mathematical score for the whole brand.

What I’d check before buying

• Model and year: Compare the exact CFORCE, UFORCE or ZFORCE trim you plan to buy, not a review of another model with a similar number.
• Service and parts: Ask your local authorized dealer to quote availability and lead time for a CVT belt, routine filters and one major repair part for that exact VIN. Ask who handles warranty claims.
• Warranty: Read the U.S. contract for that year and verify when coverage begins. The 2025 U.S. brochure describes a standard 12-month limited warranty; don’t substitute a Canadian warranty advertised online.
• Used-machine condition: Request maintenance records, look at belt and clutch condition, check four-wheel-drive operation, steering, electrical functions and signs of water entry, and confirm open recall work by VIN.
• Your actual job: Test the seating, controls, noise and low-speed behavior under the kind of load you’ll use. A feature-rich UTV can still be the wrong fit for a farm or trail.

For a broader view of manufacturers and vehicle types, see my guides to ATV brands, UTV brands and what a UTV is.

What about CFMOTO motorcycles?

CFMOTO also makes motorcycles, but I wouldn’t use a motorcycle review to predict how a UFORCE transmission or CFORCE CVT will hold up. A 2025 CFMOTO 450SS road test reported favorable handling and features alongside passenger-comfort limitations.

That’s useful evidence about that motorcycle’s riding experience, not a long-term reliability result and not a test of a CFMOTO ATV.

My buying decision would start with the machine, not the flag on the badge: CFMOTO is a Chinese manufacturer with a real U.S. distribution operation and several distinct off-road engine platforms. Confirm the precise engine, inspect the dealer’s service capability and check the VIN before deciding whether its equipment and price make sense for you.