Comoto Holdings, the owner of J&P Cycles, Revzilla and Cycle Gear, has acquired Colorado based REVER, the world's largest motorcycle, off-road and adventure GPS app and community, to further expand its digital platform consumer reach footprint. The REVER app is said to have been downloaded more than one million times.
The MIC has said that domestic U.S. motorcycle sales were up by double digits percent through the third quarter. Year-to-date sales of new motorcycles and scooters through September increased 10.2% compared to the same period of 2019.
The pre-production protype of the upcoming Harley Pan America has been on the road in Europe - visiting dealers in France and Italy in particular to spread ADV love in advance of the expected Q1 launch confirmation. Indeed, several Italian Harley dealers are reported to have already placed pre-orders as Milwaukee works hard to prop up any domestic U.S. negativity with enough international sales to make it worth continuing with, or maybe because it is because the BMW and Honda Africa Twin dominated European ADV market will be the toughest to crack.
AMA Hall of Famer and original member of the Indian Motorcycle Racing 'Wrecking Crew', Bill Tuman has died in Bettendorf, Iowa, aged 99. In a professional racing career that spanned from 1947 to 1955 he won five AMA Grand National championships and earned nicknames such as the 'Rockford Rocket' and 'Bullet Bill'. Between 1950 and 1953 he raced for the Indian factory team with Ernie Beckman and Bobby Hill - they garnered 14 AMA National wins between them.
Polaris says sales of its roadster style Slingshot reverse three-wheel trike doubled in the USA between May and September this year, with Q3 up by mid-50 percent. Slingshot features Polaris' first ever four-cylinder engine and AutoDrive transmission.
Indian conglomerate Mahindra's 'Classic Legends' retro brand division says it sold over 50,000 Jawa branded motorcycles in India in the 12 months to October 2020. Add to that, Brexit permitting, the company is developing BSA badged internal combustion engine and electric bike models at its Banbury, Oxfordshire UK Technical Center for 2021 assembly from mostly UK made components at a factory in Coventry - the spiritual home of the motorcycle industry in the UK, if not the world.
BRP forecast EPS as likely up in the range of +31 to +37% for the twelve months to January 2021 when reporting better than expected results for the three and nine-month period to the end of October 2020. Q3 revenues were +$31.1m/+1.9% at $1.674bn. North American (NA) powersports vehicle unit retail sales were +16%, with gross profit +$45.0m/+10.2% at $486.9m. Revenues were -$299.0m/-6.7% at $4,137.8m for the nine-month period, with NA vehicle sales +23%.
In Europe overall, the 'Big Five' markets (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, UK) account for approx. 80% of all new motorcycle sales. Brussels based motorcycle industry trade association ACEM puts 'Big Five' new motorcycle registrations for the period January to September at 694,606 units (-4.18% - down from 724,917 for 2019), indicating healthy market recovery across Europe prior to the second wave of COVID-19 fully affecting sales and general economic activity throughout Europe. Extrapolating, that would make the whole of Europe worth some 868,000 units for the period (compared to 906,000 in 2019). In electric motorcycle terms, the same 'Big Five' markets were worth some 13,897 new electric motorcycle registrations for the first nine months of 2020. However, other markets such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and elsewhere are also among the biggest players in the E-space.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, B&B, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com
