International Dealer News IDN 138 August/September 2017 | Page 10

news ROOM
BRADLEY
REPORT
US TRADE
NEWS
Motorcycle thefts were up by 2 percent
in 2016 – with 46,467 bikes stolen
according to insurance industry data.
However, thefts have declined by 30
percent from the 66,774 reported in
2006.
Yamaha’s new air-cooled 1850cc
Star Venture is the
BOOT
latest Big Incher to
H#
crowd the ‘Tourer
Space’ in the United
431
States - launching
with a 5-year warranty.
Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade
Representative, has told a congressional
committee that while he is
"sympathetic" to American
motorcyclists, dealerships and others in
the “Beef for Bikes” controversy, he will
not, at this stage intervene and remove
small displacement European made
motorcycles from a proposed import
tariff on motorcycles of 500cc and less,
while negotiations continue in a dispute
with the European Union over U.S. beef
imports.
Ford has patented a lane splitting
detection technology for
autonomous vehicles. Motorcycles
pose one of the toughest
challenges for so-called
“driverless cars” (and other four-
wheel vehicles). Their system uses
a combination of microphones
and video cameras to detect an
approaching motorcycle.
America’s top Ohlins Suspension dealer
Daniel Laine Kyle of Carmel-by-the-sea,
California, is likely looking at some
serious goal time and major-league
fines after pleading guilty to tax fraud
by hiding cash transactions – he is
estimated to have defrauded the US
government of anywhere between
$500,000 and $1.5m in taxes over a
six-year period.
A Suzuki Motor America employee
is being taken to court by U.S.
authorities over claims he
knowingly lied for his employer in
an application for a Certificate of
Conformity under the Clean Air
Act – altering documents to show
the company would not be over
its allotted emissions for the 2012
model year.
American company Desktop Metal may
be about to unveil a technology that
will advance 3D printing of metal parts.
Instead of lasers to melt a limited range
of metallic powders, their technology is
reported to use “microwave enhanced
sintering” to print with virtually any
metal – from copper and steel to
aluminium and titanium - and to do so
up to 100 times faster than techniques
used so far.
10
KTM sets new Pike’s Peak record
The 2017 KTM 1290 Super Duke
R claimed a new outright
motorcycle record on June 26
for the demanding and iconic
Broadmoor Pike’s Peak
International Hill Climb, with
racer Chris Fillmore at the
controls.
Riding on a Super Duke
prepared with readily available
KTM PowerParts in the Two
Wheel and Heavyweight
Division - the top motorcycle
class - Fillmore posted a time of
nine minutes 49.625s on the
winding 4,302 metre high,
19.99km, 156-turn closed road
near Colorado Springs, USA.
Fillmore, a former AMA
Superbike racer for HMC KTM,
was a rookie at the event.
Not surprisingly KTM are very
pleased with themselves and
said of the bike: “With a
mountain of torque and peak
power now at 177 hp, the 1,301
cc LC8 V-twin engine is the
benchmark for naked sportsters.
www.ppihc.com
More layoffs loom at Harley as
Q2 sales plummet in U.S.A.
The shocking headline news is that
Harley-Davidson’s second quarter
domestic U.S. sales were down a
massive -9.3 percent compared to the
second quarter of 2016, a result that is
way worse than the one they were
expecting, in a peak selling season
where total domestic U.S. new
motorcycle sales were down by around
7 percent for the quarter.
This puts Harley’s domestic sales down
by - 7.9 percent for the first half of the
year and leaves their domestic market
share in the 601+cc category at 48.5
percent for the second quarter
(compared to 49.5 percent for Q2 in
2016) and at 49.6 percent for the first
half year 2017. The company is citing
“weak industry sales and soft used bike
process” as among the Q2 impactors.
The company says that dealer inventory
is down by approximately 7,200
motorcycles year on year and that it will
further cut production with its revised
unit shipments now forecast at
between 241,000 and 246,000 for the
full year 2017, 39,000 to 44,000 of
them in Q3 – down by between 10 and
20 percent from Q3 2017. Total second
quarter shipments were 81,807 units
(down by -7.2 percent on Q2 2016 and
are 152,638 for the half year (down by
-10.8 percent of the first half of 2016).
Originally the company had forecast
that 2017 would be “flat to modestly
down for them,” but they are now
having to accept that the “new normal”
CEO Matt Levatich referenced in
February means “down double digits”
for the year, with massive restructuring
of channel inventory levels not just a
first quarter fix, as originally suggested.
The cut in production will result in
further lay-offs, likely of hourly paid
INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2017
staff, as the company continues to
“aggressively manage our cost
structure,” Levatich said, in
acknowledging the “unexpected
magnitude of the industry softening in
the second quarter.”
Managing supply, further reducing
costs, and continuing pursuit of their
previously announced 10-year
Harley CEO Matt Levatich: "Our
biggest opportunities for growth are
outside the United States”
strategies, not least the training of 2
million new riders and introduction of
100 new models, are the three pillars of
recovery that the Harley ranch is bet on
at this time – with much now hinging
on market reaction to the new 2018
model year introductions.
No surprise then that, contrary to
widespread speculation, it would
appear that Harley has decided not to
bid for Ducati after all.
CFO John Ollin and CEO Matt Levatich
both acknowledged that “our biggest
opportunities for growth is outside the
United States,” and both have
reaffirmed their stated objective of
seeing at least 50 percent of sales being
made internationally within 10 years.
Harley recently announced a plan to
build an assembly plant in Thailand to
service the ASEAN region – believed to
be a direct response to U.S. withdrawal
from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)
free trade deal that would have seen
tariff barriers reduced; a withdrawal
that Levatich is on record as saying
“would have helped us a lot.”
Harley’s total worldwide motorcycle
retail sales were 81,388 in the second
quarter, down by -6.7 percent, with
worldwide sales -5.7 percent YTD. Of
that 31,720 units were international
sales, which is down by -2.3 percent for
the second quarter, and are -2.1 percent
for the YTD.
Their Europe, Middle East and Africa
region was the best performing of their
export markets, with sales down by only
1.6 percent for the second quarter and
-2.1 percent YTD; their European
601+cc market share was up by 0.2
percent for the second quarter at 10.3
percent, but remains -0.9 percent for
the YTD at 9.4 percent.
Harley added 13 more dealers
internationally during the second
quarter, and has reconfirmed its
intention to grow its international
dealer network by between 150 and
200 new outlets between 2016 and
2020.
Shares in Harley-Davidson tanked by
nearly 11 percent within an hour of
trading opening on the day the second
quarter figures were released (July 18)
in the heaviest daily trading seen in
more than two years. The share price
recovered slightly during the day (from
a 12-month low), but were left trading
some 25 percent lower than their 12-
month high of $62.94 in March.