A Paean to Tohatsu Outboard Engines

A conversation among Whalers
R DAVIS
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Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2015 10:33 am

A Paean to Tohatsu Outboard Engines

Postby R DAVIS » Tue Mar 30, 2021 11:59 am

Tohatsu engine are very well made and reliable. Tohatsu is the second-oldest outboard engine manufacturer in the world and is second in overall sales. They are entirely made in Japan, and contain no Chinese or other non-Japanese parts.

Parts and service are readily available.

They are attractive looking motors.

They are priced much lower than other comparable engine of similar size.

They are the lightest four-stroke-power-cycle engines of their horsepower.

They are currently available from Tohatsu dealers.

They are rapidly gaining popularity in North America in the re-power marketplace.

These engine were originally made for the Japanese inshore fishing fleet, and are very popular in Asia, Australia, the entire South Pacific, South America and Europe.

On-line research will find very few complaints.

Many people consider them to be very reliable.

jimh
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Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
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Re: A Paean to Tohatsu Outboard Engines

Postby jimh » Tue Mar 30, 2021 12:31 pm

I continue to have skepticism about any presentation of sales data that gives market share rankings. The notion that Tohatsu is "second in overall sales" is implausible if you are referring to sales into the U.S. marketplace. In the U.S. marketplace both Brunswick (with their Mercury Marine brand) and Yamaha are considered to be the two top brands in market share, with exactly who is number-one and who is number-two seldom clarified. Behind them are Suzuki, Honda, and (when still competing) Evinrude, and probably Tohatsu.

A recent report on global outboard engine market share said:

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
Yamaha is the global market leader with 40-percent market share and reported revenue of $2.6-billion in January to September 2019 period, four percent up year-over-year.

Source: https://mobilityforesights.com/product/marine-outboard-engine-market/

Tohatsu entered into an agreement with Honda in 2013 to sell rebranded Honda engines under the Tohatsu brand in the U.S.A.
https://www.tradeonlytoday.com/tech/tohatsu-america-joins-with-honda-on-outboard-lineup

Tohatsu has also been manufacturing outboard engines for sale under other brands. Some Evinrude-branded engines were made by Tohatsu.

Many Brunswick Mercury-branded small engines are made for them by Tohatsu. There is a large Tohatsu engine manufacturing plant in Komagane, Nagano Prefecture, in Japan. Fans of Mercury consider it blasphemy to think otherwise, but this plant is run by Tohatsu. This question is discussed at length and put to rest in a long thread in the archives.

Tohatsu has been making very nice small outboard engines for some time, but their presence in the U.S. market is still very minimal. That their market share in the U.S. could be growing is certainly plausible. The real problem for Tohatsu is their dealer network is small.

dtmackey
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Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:29 pm

Re: A Paean to Tohatsu Outboard Engines

Postby dtmackey » Thu Apr 01, 2021 5:59 pm

R DAVIS wrote:Tohatsu engine are very well made and reliable. Tohatsu is the second-oldest outboard engine manufacturer in the world and is second in overall sales.


Please site your source of information. Industry data does not have Tohatsu at second in sales in the US or Globally. The larger Tohatsu outboards are actually built by Honda.

In 2015 Tohatsu had a 7.29% share of the global outboard market (Source Market Research Future). They'd be hard pressed to increase their sales by more than 3 to 5% globally while working with a very small R&D budget (R&D budgets are based on a percentage of sales). The industry industry giants are pouring far more R&D and launching new motors at a far greater rate than Tohatsu.

Now that Evinrude is a thing of the past, if I were Tohatsu I'd be chasing all the previous Evinrude dealers and focusing heavily on the re-power market, but this isn't happening. Not to mention that many parts of the country do not have a network of Tohatsu dealers for people to purchase from or more importantly have their motors serviced.

D-
Last edited by dtmackey on Fri Apr 02, 2021 9:38 am, edited 1 time in total.

jimh
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Re: A Paean to Tohatsu Outboard Engines

Postby jimh » Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:26 am

For me and perhaps some others, the dealer is the most important element in the choice of an outboard engine. It is quite hard to understand how Evinrude, with a huge network of dealers, and many of those dealers having decades and decades of history with selling and supporting Evinrude, could abandon production of outboard engines. The competition was just too much for Evinrude. They could not make any headway in market share, even with a huge dealer network, a household brand name, and a good product.

Right now all the market share gain in the outboard engine business is in the monster-horsepower engines, 300-HP and higher. I don't think the 60-HP market is going to be the product group that could take a manufacturer to more market share in the USA.

Tohatsu makes nice small engines--if you can find a dealer that sells them near you.

dtmackey
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Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2017 9:29 pm

Re: A Paean to Tohatsu Outboard Engines

Postby dtmackey » Fri Apr 02, 2021 9:43 am

jimh wrote:Tohatsu makes nice small engines--if you can find a dealer that sells them near you.
Funny thing is I have a 5HP Tohatsu two-stroke that I purchased new around 2000. That engine is bulletproof and served many years on a small inflatable. I think back then I ordered and had it shipped due to the lack of dealers. Still have it today and now on loan to my brother-in-law. The only thing it gets is lower unit oil changes and a new plug.

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