Here are a few more things to consider about Chinese motorcycle exports: China now makes half of all motorcycles produced worldwide. In export markets, Chinese motorcycle manufacturers have been rapidly gaining share, especially in emerging markets in Southeast Asia and Africa. And further: Chinese companies have also grabbed market share from their Japanese … [Read more...]
Motorcycles from China
Chinese motorcycles are coming, whether or not anyone is ready for them. Those soft sales figures many manufacturers have been reporting may be a sign of things to come if the Chinese have their way. China offers an enormous market for anything you might be selling but tariffs on imported goods make selling into that market extremely challenging if not impossible. The potential … [Read more...]
Colorado, no Sunday motorcycle sales either
Just mentioned Michigan the other day and here's another story about the same thing, this time from Colorado. They tried to get a bill passed to OK Sunday motorcycle sales and sure enough, it went down in flames. They can sell tires and batteries and rent and repair motorcycles, they just can't sell them. I guess some very specific activities are sacrilegious while some are … [Read more...]
Motorcycles and expensive gas
Those not so great sales and earnings numbers I've mentioned in the past week make me wonder, why aren't motorcycles selling in greater numbers due to the price of gas alone? If we can get 40 or 50mpg and sometimes far more, that alone should help sales especially with many motorcycles being far less expensive than the average car or truck. The problem with that idea may be … [Read more...]
Vehicle sales are off, cars, too.
Over the last week we've seen Harley Davidson announce lowered earnings and expectations and Yamaha said their production and exports were down, today, General Motors announced they lost $1.1 Billion in the first quarter. Talk is of closing up to 4 plants and cutting 20,000 to 30,000 jobs along with dropping the Buick brand. Wow. … [Read more...]
Yamaha output down
After the Harley report a few days ago, Yamaha is saying it produced about a third less motorcycles over the last 11 months and exported 30% less. As I suspected, the motorcycle market is getting soft. … [Read more...]