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Pods for Bods ? Nah , I think not !
Brussels based international motorcycle trade association ACEM staged its 13th annual conference in Brussels in January . The event , titled “ Sustainable Motorcycling in Europe ”, attracted more than 250 attendees from all over Europe , representing businesses , representatives from the European Commission , the European Parliament , Member States , NGOs and other organisations . The focus , of course , was on environmental sustainability , which embraces both kinds of emissions - chemical pollutants and noise - and sustainability in terms of the safety of its customers and other road users ( vehicles safety , apparel and training quality ). Although slow to start with , in terms of all these evolving requirements , the industry has responded to the ever-tightening emissions and safety requirements seen in the past twenty plus years with an increasing sense of urgency and realism about the transport landscape of the future . As a result of doing so , motorcycling is now not only regarded by transport policy makers as a legitimate form of transport whose consumers have exactly the same citizens ’ rights as any other group of road users , but is also now regarded as one of the “ good guys ” of future facing transport solutions with a binding regulatory requirement for all new transport safety and environmental rule- making to be stress-tested against the very specific road use requirements of powered twowheelers . calling on the EU to recognise that “ sustainability ” In also means commercial viability , it fell to ACEM
President and KTM CEO Stefan Pierer to point out that commercial sustainability also needed to be recognised as an essential part of the equation - an essential precondition of society ’ s ability to deliver on its ambitions for clean air , reduced urban congestion and safe roads . “ A market that is not economically viable cannot be regarded as being sustainable in any sense ” said Pierer . He went on to call for greater speed and balance in arriving at future stages of regulation , saying that “ in addition to manufacturers having responsibilities for good quality products , regulators have responsibilities too - responsibility to deliver good quality regulations . The framework they set for manufacturers to work in must also be sustainable from a business point of view . “ Our industry is committed to sustainability , which we understand as a complex process related to environmental performance of vehicles , road safety and economic viability of our operations . “ Since 1999 , our sector moved from the Euro 0 to the Euro 4 standard . Carbon monoxide emissions were reduced by 91 %. Nitrogen oxide and carbon emissions considered together went down by 92 %. Even more , this reduction in limit values took place at the same time that new and more stringent testing procedures were introduced in European legislation . “ In the coming months , we will start working on the implementation of the future
Stefan Pierer , KTM CEO : “ A market that is not economically viable cannot be regarded as being sustainable in any sense ”
Euro 5 environmental standard . However , manufacturing vehicles requires complex planning and we urgently need clarity from the European Commission regarding the technical content and implementation timeline of Euro 5 .” For me , one of the “ elephants in the room ” as the low or zero emissions , EV , driver assist , V2V and autonomous vehicle debates continue to evolve , has been where exactly will motorcycles fit into these often competing visions of the future . Antonio Perlot , the Secretary General of ACEM , quite rightly pointed to a future in which motorcycles / PTWs have a major role to play . However , it fell to Bernd Lange , an MEP from Germany and a player in the European Parliament ’ s scrutiny of proposed motorcycle transport regulation , to state the obvious . That while it is clear that electric power plants have a role to play , beyond the urban mobility context , long distance motorcycle travel faces the same challenges of capacity and charge time as do cars . There will therefore always be a role for low / zero emission internal combustion engine power plants .
, exactly . The future is bright , but it is hybrid . Those Yes who think that we are headed towards an entirely
autonomous vehicle future are naïve . That is neither possible , necessary or desirable . The evolution of 21st century transport solutions of all kinds will be a mixed palette of circumstance-specific solutions in which it is the combination of improved and new elements that will achieve transport objectives – not the elimination of established elements or dependency on any one single new element . Indeed , for me it is driver assist and V2V technology that holds the key for the future of life on two wheels . The safer and easier it becomes to use our products , in addition to the quieter and “ greener ” they are , the more of them we ’ ll sell . Road users of the mid twenty-first century and beyond will be beneficiaries of a mixed portfolio of solutions ; hopefully a perfect storm of initiatives that will make riding and driving on the roads cleaner , quieter , safer , less stressful and , even if one inevitable area of driver assist and V2V intervention are speed limit governors , actually , the result would be quicker transport too . Now , autonomous movement of goods across land , sea and air , now that would actually address the largest single source of airborne pollutants produced by road going vehicles – “ commercials ” are the largest polluters by volume of toxins released . But a fully autonomous world of pods for bods ? Nah , I think not !
Robin Bradley Publisher robin @ dealer-world . com
4 INTERNATIONAL DEALER NEWS - FEBRUARY / MARCH 2018