Called my Toro Dealer & my New Scag Dealer & asked about the Kawi engines.
They both had similar answers, stating more mower brands are wanting the Kawi engines & the demand has surpassed the supply, for certain engines.
That's my 02 anyhow.
You also have to see this in the contex of the B & S Bankruptcy.
Almost no OEM factory specified B & S engines for this years production because B & S was bankrupt & could not guarantee supply
Kohler are already fully booked as obviously is Kawakasi
So either they just have to wait for local engines or do a deal with a foreign supplier.
However you can not just phone Loncin, Ducar , Luffan etc and put an order in for 20,000 engines with your company logo on the blower housing.
These sort of supply deals take a few years to nut out so lots of factories have been caught out and that was before Covid hit & disrupted everything.
THe Obama administration gave B & S a lot of money to bring more engine making in shore so they closed down the Japanese factory that made the Vanguards and moved it Stateside.
Then of cause filed, and closed down the Wisconsin plants before the New York plants were in full production.
So almost no B & S engines , thus where a model would normally have 3 engine options this season there are only 2 and neither Kohler nor Kawakasi have the capacity to replace all of the B & S engines in a single season.